“This result is one important step toward understanding the full effect of DART’s impact with its target asteroid. As new data come in each day, astronomers will be able to better assess whether, and how, a mission like DART could be used in the future to help protect Earth from a collision with an asteroid if we ever discover one headed our way.”
Source: Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, discussing the success of NASA's DART program, as the administration confirmed after weeks of analysis following its Double Asteroid Redirection Test.