Hollywood always had movies based on threats coming from deep space. Aliens, sun outbursts, moon out of orbit, and asteroids on their way to extinguish humanity after their impact.
If we look at the narrative of the asteroid impact, it is pretty much always the same. Army guys think about nuking the asteroid, but the planet is saved by a bunch of brave astronauts hitting the asteroid with a spaceship. Usually, the astronauts die and become heroes.
Since a few days ago, this was fiction.
After the DART, Double Asteroid Redirection Test, mission, this has become a reality. NASA sent an unmanned spaceship to the surface of an asteroid, demonstrating that this scenario is feasible.
I guess they have collected a bunch of data that will allow them to build a model to address potential threats in the future.
There is a very detailed NASA page on the mission. If you want to know more just go there and read.
Ok, why am I not posting the link here?
Google has a cool easter egg. Open google.com and search for “dart mission.”