NASA Releases Incredible Photos of DART Crashing 520-Foot Asteroid Dimorphos

NASA shared incredible photos showing swirling clouds of dust after NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft struck a massive space rock for its planetary defense efforts.

DART Collides With Huge Asteroid

The refrigerator-sized spacecraft collided with the 520-foot-wide asteroid named Dimorphos on Sept. 26, 2022. The mission was to demonstrate that the technology would deflect space rocks that threaten planet Earth in the future, Daily Mail reported.

DART shaved 33 minutes off of Dimorphos' orbit, nearly five times more than predicted, which was regarded as a success. The scientists at the University of Edinburgh studied the results of the collision, including the debris left and how it clumped over time.

According to Ph.D. student Brian Murphy, asteroids are some of the most fundamental remnants of what all the planets and moons in our Solar System were built from.

We can learn more about how our Solar System developed from the dust cloud left behind after DART slammed into Dimorphos at 14,000 mph (22,000 kph).

It might also reveal further details about the asteroids' chemical makeup. Hits between asteroids happen naturally, but you never know it in advance, said astronomer Dr. Cyrielle Opitom.

DART offers an excellent chance to research a controlled impact, almost like in a lab.

The crew watched the DART mission from seven million miles away (11 million km) using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory.

Using the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) equipment at the VLT in Chile, they studied the ensuing debris for a month.

They discovered that the dust had a blue appearance right after the collision, indicating it was composed of tiny particles.

Yet, as time passed, the particles started to group together, creating clusters, spirals, and a protracted tail that extended away from the Sun's light.

It was clear that the tail and spirals were made up of larger dust particles because they were redder than the initial dust cloud.

The scientists could analyze Dimorphos' chemical makeup from the dust it spewed thanks to MUSE. This is because certain sunlight wavelengths are reflected by particular molecules, such as water (H2O) and oxygen (O2), enabling their identification.

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What Is DART?

Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is the first-ever mission dedicated to investigating and demonstrating one method of asteroid deflection by changing an asteroid's motion in space through kinetic impact.

According to NASA, it successfully altered the asteroid's orbit. It was the first time humans purposely changed the motion of a celestial object. It was also the first full-scale demonstration of asteroid deflection technology.

Bill Nelson, the administrator of NASA, said we must all take action to safeguard our world since it's the only one we have. According to him, the DART mission demonstrated NASA's ongoing efforts to be prepared for whatever the universe may bring. NASA has shown that it is committed to protecting the environment. The mission was a turning point for planetary security and humanity, showing the dedication of NASA's world-class team and partners.

Dimorphos orbited Didymos, its bigger parent asteroid, for 11 hours and 55 minutes prior to DART's collision. Astronomers have measured how much that time has shifted using telescopes on Earth before DART's deliberate collision with Dimorphos on Sept. 26. The study team has now determined that the impact shorted Dimorphos' orbit around Didymos from 11 hours and 55 minutes to 11 hours, and 23 minutes. The error bar for this measurement is roughly plus or minus two minutes.