The aftermath of the DART mission is recorded
Scientists from NOIRLab recorded the consequences of the mission DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test), which consists of ramming the asteroid Dimorph. As a result, the object formed a long tail. The conclusions of the observations are published on the official website of the organization.
The DART project was created to protect the Earth from collisions with asteroids and meteorites. In the first operation, the spacecraft crashed at a speed of 4.1 miles per second into the asteroid Dimorph, which orbits the larger object Didyma. The first asteroid was 853 yards in diameter and the second was 175 yards.
As a result of the collision, the orbit of Dimorph changed slightly. In addition, formed a tail of dust and debris ejected from the surface of the asteroid. It stretched into a long line due to solar radiation pressure, on the same principle as the formation of plumes in comets. The approximate length of the tail is at least ten thousand kilometers. This was recorded at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, using the SOAR telescope.
In September, a video of the Didim asteroid’s trajectory correction during the DART project was published.
