Washington, 20 July, 2023 (GNP): NASA, the United States space agency, has released groundbreaking findings from its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, conducted in September 2022.
The mission involved a spacecraft deliberately colliding with an asteroid to assess the viability of shifting the trajectory of objects in space for planetary defense.
In a press release on Thursday, NASA shared images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, revealing the remarkable aftermath of the impact. The collision resulted in the release of a “swarm of boulders” from the asteroid, known as Dimorphos.
“We see a cloud of boulders carrying mass and energy away from the impact target. The numbers, sizes, and shapes of the boulders are consistent with them having been knocked off the surface of Dimorphos by the impact,” stated David Jewitt, a planetary scientist from the University of California at Los Angeles, who employs the Hubble telescope to track changes in the asteroid.
Rock on! Or…off?
After last year's #DARTMission, when @NASA intentionally crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid, Hubble has been observing the aftermath.
This Hubble image shows a few dozen boulders knocked off the asteroid by the collision: https://t.co/R1kIweXA9G pic.twitter.com/voc3M1SzpY
— Hubble (@NASAHubble) July 20, 2023
This pioneering research has provided invaluable insights into the consequences of impacting an asteroid and witnessing the ejection of material, including some of the faintest images ever recorded within our solar system.
The DART mission was a resounding success, with the satellite achieving a velocity of approximately 22,530 kilometers per hour (14,000 miles per hour) before impacting the asteroid, effectively altering its trajectory. The collision created a crater approximately 50 meters (160 feet) wide, noted Jewitt.
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Scientists hope this innovative technique can be used in the future to avert potentially catastrophic asteroid collisions with Earth. While the impact generated a significant number of boulders, the Hubble images showed that they do not pose a threat.
As of now, the boulders are moving at an approximate speed of 1 kilometer per hour (0.5 miles per hour), similar to the pace of a giant tortoise, said Jewitt.
A total of 37 boulders were identified, ranging in size from 0.9 meters (3 feet) to an impressive 6.7 meters (22 feet) across.