In 2022, NASA made history, deliberately smashing a spacecraft into an asteroid to see if it could alter the object's orbit around its larger companion asteroid.
Achievement Unlocked: Play Billiards With Your Own Solar System
For what it’s worth, the orbits of space rocks are extremely predictable if we have a good amount of information about them. NASA picked this specific rock because we know a lot about it already, it’s easy to observe, and it’s far enough away from Earth’s orbit that there’s no chance of accidentally putting in on to a collision course. We now know that if we ever do need to deflect a space rock that’s going to hit us, this method definitely works
For what it’s worth, the orbits of space rocks are extremely predictable if we have a good amount of information about them. NASA picked this specific rock because we know a lot about it already, it’s easy to observe, and it’s far enough away from Earth’s orbit that there’s no chance of accidentally putting in on to a collision course. We now know that if we ever do need to deflect a space rock that’s going to hit us, this method definitely works