Collision at Asteroid Dimorphos

Collision at Asteroid Dimorphos

Video Credit:
ASI
NASA,
Johns Hopkins APL,
DART,
LICIACube,
LUKE,
IOP

Explanation:
Why was this collision so strange?

In 2022, to develop Earth-saving technology, NASA deliberately
crashed the DART spacecraft into the
asteroid moonlet Dimorphos.

The hope was that this collision would alter the trajectory of
Dimorphos around its parent asteroid
Didymos and so demonstrate that similar collisions could,
in theory, save the Earth from being hit by (other) hazardous asteroids.

But analyses of new results show that the effects of the collision are
different than expected — and we are trying to understand
why.

Featured here is the time lapse video taken by the ejected
LICIACube camera
LUKE showing about 250 seconds of the
expanding debris field of
Dimorphos after the collision,
with un-impacted Didymos passing in the foreground.

In 2026, Europe’s
Hera
mission will reach the asteroids and release
three spacecraft to better study the matter.