NASA's DART Successfully Collides With Asteroid and Makes a Show
Thexalon writes:
NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) successfully hit its target at 7:14 PM Eastern on Monday. The asteroid they were aiming at was 11 million km away, and controllers believe the impact was within 20m of the precise point they were aiming for.
While measurements and analysis are expected to continue for years, it appears that humanity may now have a tool for deflecting asteroids that are detected heading towards planet Earth, enabling us to not go the way of the dinosaurs.
Ground Telescopes Capture Jaw-Dropping Views of DART Asteroid Impactupstart writes:
Telescopes around the world were focused on the binary asteroid system. Going into the experiment, it wasn't clear how visible the impact might be from Earth, but the images we're seeing from the ground clearly show a substantial plume emanating from Didymos.
"It is hard to comment on the stunning experience we had last night," wrote the Virtual Telescope project in a blog post. "We saw in real-time, with our very own eyes, the effects of DART slamming into its target asteroid Didymos, making it much brighter, with a huge cloud of debris." [...]
[...] I'm struck by the size of the plume, but it's difficult to tell if the impact kicked up a lot of material or if these views are a function of really bright dust. Views of Dimorphos's surface looked very rubble pile-like, suggesting a loose conglomeration of materials. If that's the case, Dimorphos may have done tremendous damage to the asteroid, but we need more data to be sure. At the very least, DART produced a substantial cloud of dust.
Definitely worth clicking through and seeing the time-lapse images from the ground. [hubie]
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