SoCal Residents Could Be In For A Treat With An Aerial Lightshow Tonight, Courtesy Of SpaceX And NASA

Southern California residents could be getting an aerial lightshow on Tuesday night when Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk-led SpaceX and U.S. space agency NASA attempt to launch a planetary defense mission along the California central coast.

What Happened: SpaceX and NASA are planning to smash a satellite directly into an asteroid later tonight as part of their Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART).

The experimental test attempts to find out if this is an effective way to change an asteroid’s course in the future to avoid a collision with Earth, SpaceX said in a tweet.