ITV reports that the #supersquad has launched an initiative called the US-European Aida (Asteroid Deflection and Assessment). In what the outlet calls a “practice run for saving the world” (cute!), “Scientists plan to test if they can nudge an asteroid out of its orbital path.”
Their target for this little “practice run” is an asteroid called Didymoon, which is 525 feet wide. According to Fortune, if NASA and the ESA can successfully change the path of this relatively smaller asteroid, “the same principle could potentially apply to a much larger, more threatening formation.”