NASA's Hubble Captures Twin Tails Of Dust From Asteroid After DART Crash
NDTV
Hubble has made 18 observations of the system. The image indicates the second tail formed between October 2 and October 8.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope spotted twin tails of dust ejecting from the Didymos-Dimorphos asteroid system. Last month, NASA DART spacecraft slammed itself into a distant asteroid in a test of the world's first planetary defence system, designed to prevent a potential doomsday meteorite collision with Earth. Hubble captured the aftermath of the impact.
The data from the crash shows that DART shortened Dimorphos' original 11-hour and 55-minute orbit around Didymos by about 32 minutes. The mission was devised to determine whether a spacecraft is capable of changing the trajectory of an asteroid through sheer kinetic force, nudging it off course just enough to keep our planet out of harm's way.
