Photo by Steve Jurvetson on Flickr.com
The Double Asteroid Orientation Test (DART) spacecraft from the US Aerospace Agency (NASA) successfully collided with the asteroid as intended, around 11 million kilometers from Earth. For the first time, NASA has released in-depth pictures of the collision taken by the Hubble and James Webb telescopes.
The “planet defense test” that took place before the DART spacecraft crashed into an asteroid in an effort to alter its orbit has been captured in detail for the first time by NASA.
But a two-color time-lapse video depicting the spacecraft’s approach and the brightness of the crash was created using images from the $325 million DART (Double Asteroid Orientation Test) mission.
The James Webb and Hubble space telescopes by NASA were used for taking pictures. Images depict the collision of the asteroid Didymos striking its moon Dimorphos at a distance of 11 million kilometers from Earth.
Bill Nelson, a former astronaut and current head of NASA, mentioned: “Webb and Hubble demonstrate what we at NASA have always known to be true: we learn more when we work together,”
For the first time, Webb and Hubble took pictures of the same object in the universe at the same moment, saying, “Humanity is waiting impatiently.” The DART mission and other discoveries made by Webb, Hubble, and ground-based observatories are anticipated by all of mankind.
On the other hand, it was mentioned last Monday during a press conference for the DART mission that it may take up to two months to determine whether the power of the collision is sufficient to cause Dimorphos to depart from its regular orbit around Didymos.
In the process, researchers will use ground-based telescopes to observe Dimorogos and determine whether its orbit has deviated in any way.
