On the night of September 26–27, NASA's DART spacecraft successfully collided with the asteroid Dimorph. This
Now researchers are publishing photos andvideo recordings made during ground-based observations and from other spacecraft. For example, astronomers in a small area of our planet, stretching from southern and eastern Africa to the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Peninsula, could observe it live with their telescopes.
The European Space Agency presentedfootage of the collision taken by the Les Makes observatory team on the French Indian Ocean island of Réunion. The image shows that the asteroid immediately began to brighten upon impact, and after a few seconds it became noticeably brighter. Less than a minute later, a cloud of ejected material was visible and could be followed as it drifted eastward and slowly dissipated.
Accelerated post-collision surveillance recordingasteroid and spaceship. Video: Les Makes observatory, J. Berthier, F. Vachier / T. Santana-Ros / ESA NEOCC, D. Föhring, E. Petrescu, M. Micheli
The first pictures also came from the camera,installed on the tiny LUCIAcube satellite. This is a 6-section cubesat (small satellite) developed by the Italian Space Agency. About a week before the collision, he separated from the DART ship, but followed it to observe the collision up close.
Images taken by the LUCIAcube satellite. The image shows Didymus (a large asteroid), Dimorph, and the dust cloud that the impact formed. Photo: ASI, NASA
In the coming days and weeks, astronomers around the worldwill work to confirm whether the asteroid's trajectory was permanently altered by the impact. Previously, Hi-Tech told how the DART mission went and how astronomers will continue to evaluate its results.
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