When a massive asteroid is hurtling toward Earth, the solution seems straightforward; smash a spacecraft into it and knock it off course.

That's exactly what NASA successfully did with the DART mission in 2022, they proved this concept works and dramatically altered the orbit of the asteroid Dimorphos.

But new research reveals the chilling possibility that an asteroid hit in the wrong spot, and you might just be postponing the impact!

Scientists at the University of Illinois have discovered that poorly aimed asteroid deflection attempts could accidentally steer space rocks through dangerous regions in space known as "gravitational keyholes" that would alas, still mean they hit Earth, just years or decades later!

A gravitational keyhole is a small region of space where a planet's grav

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