Telescopes on the ground captured the spectacular death of the DART asteroid probe in deep space.
DART slammed into Dimorphos, on Monday evening (September 26), as planned, the moon of the larger asteroid Didymos gave up its robotic life in the name of planetary protection. The dramatic impact occurred 7 million miles (11 million kilometers) from Earth, but some sharp-eyed binoculars on our planet could see it.
For example, observations from the Hawaii-based Asteroid Impact Termination Alert System (ATLAS) show that Didymos the system brightens considerably at the moment of impact. And immediately after, a large shell of thrown material flies away from the battered Dimorphos.
Related: NASA’s DART asteroid-impact mission explained in pictures
ATLAS observations of the impact of the DART spacecraft on Didymos! pic.twitter.com/26IKwB9VSoSeptember 27, 2022
One of the 3.3-foot (1 meter) telescopes at the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) at the South African Astronomical Observatory told a similar story from a different angle; DART It hits Dimorphos as it moves from left to right in the frame, not from right to left as in the ATLAS shots.
ATLAS project Pannounced his observations (opens in new tab) Late Monday night on Twitter, a A member of the LCO team (opens in new tab). Both time-lapse videos are worth a few minutes of your time.
At 560 feet (170 meters) wide, Dimorphos poses no threat to Earth, and neither does Didymos at about 2,560 feet (780 m) wide. NASA simply used the space rock system for target application to test the “kinetic impact” strategy asteroid deflection.
Scientists will now use different telescopes to measure how much the impact changed Dimorphos’ orbit around Didymos. Such data will teach them the effectiveness of kinetic impact techniques, helping future efforts to remove dangerous space rocks from Earth. Experts note that we will have to encounter a large asteroid at some point; it’s a matter of when, not if.
The DART (“Double Asteroid Redirection Test”) postmortem begins now. More ground-based telescopes around the world will soon begin monitoring the Didymos system. And we should get some post-effects shots of Dimorphos in the next few days LICIACube, a small Italian cup that DART placed in September. 11.
The work in the near future will not end there. The European Space Agency plans to launch a probe Ivy to the Didymos system in 2024. After arriving in 2026, Hera will stay there for a while, collecting various information about both asteroids.
Mike Wall is the author of “there (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Carl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter. @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).
