NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Four years ago, US space agency NASA purposely smashed a spacecraft into a small asteroid to see if they could deflect it — a test to prove humanity could protect Earth from threatening space rocks.

The experiment pushed the moonlet asteroid Dimorphos into a smaller, faster route around its sibling Didymos — and according to new research out Friday, it also pushed the pair into a slightly different orbit around the Sun.

The test on Dimorphos was never based on any actual threat to our planet.

But the successful experiment and additional analysis offers a solid data point to mount a defense if any such eventual threat is detected, researchers said.

“This study marks a notable step forward in our ability to prevent future asteroid impacts on Earth,” the team of international researchers wrote in their new paper published in the journal Science Advances.

Their observations detailed in the paper showed that the Double Asteroid Redirection Test in 2022 marked “the first time a human-made object has measurably altered the path of a celestial body around the Sun,” NASA said in a statement.