70-Hubble Views Aftermath of DART Impact
December 22
The DART mission deployed a kinetic impactor to smack the small moon Dimorphos of the asteroid Didymos on the evening of Sept. 26.
This was an on-orbit demonstration of asteroid deflection, a key test of NASA’s kinetic impactor technology, designed to impact an asteroid to adjust its speed and path.
This particular asteroid moon is NOT a threat to Earth, but is technology being explored to use for when we DO find a potentially hazardous asteroid.
The Hubble Space Telescope captured these extraordinary views of the asteroid moon soon after the successful impact.
*This Hubble image is from October 8, 2022, 11.9 days after impact. A double tail formed to the right of a bright core. Hubble records the tail splitting in two for a few days. (see website below).