#dart probe

James Webb got got us this one

Alexandra Witze @alexwitze · 5h First @LICIACube images of the #DARTMission impact are out.

Nasa’s Dart probe to smash into asteroid in first Earth defence test | Asteroids | The Guardian

Aim is to see whether space rocks can be deflected should one threaten humans with same fate as dinosaurs

Most mission scientists would wince at the thought of their spacecraft being smashed to smithereens. But for those behind Nasa’s Dart probe, anything short of total destruction will be chalked up as a failure.

The $330m (£300m) spacecraft is due to slam head-on into an asteroid about 11m kilometres above the Indian Ocean soon after midnight on Monday. The impact, at nearly seven kilometres a second, will obliterate the half-tonne probe, all in the name of planetary defence.

A cloud of debris emerges from Dimorphos following the DART impact.  Credit: Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in Hawaii

Spaceweather.com Time Machine - September 27, 2022

...  This was the result of the 1,340-pound spacecraft‘s plunging into Dimorphos at 14,000 mph.  Most of the debris is probably asteroid dust, but some of DART may be in there, too.  A similar video was recorded by the 1-meter Lesedi telescope in South Africa.

Mission scientsts say DART hit the asteroid less than 17 meters off center.  Think about that: 17 meters off at a distance of 11 million kilometers.  NASA still has the right stuff.

Now that the dust has cleared, astronomers are monitoring Dimorphos's orbit to find out whether or not it has changed in response to the strike.  Even a slight shift would prove that human tech can alter an asteroid's trajectory--a possible strategy for future Planetary Defense.

Webb, Hubble Capture Detailed Views of DART Impact | NASA

First: This animated GIF combines three of the images NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured after NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) intentionally impacted Dimorphos, a moonlet asteroid in the double asteroid system of Didymos. The animation spans from 22 minutes after impact to 8.2 hours after the collision took place. As a result of the impact, the brightness of the Didymos-Dimorphos system increased by 3 times. The brightness also appears to hold fairly steady, even eight hours after impact. 

Second: This animation, a timelapse of images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, covers the time spanning just before impact at 7:14 p.m. EDT, Sept. 26, through 5 hours post-impact. Plumes of material from a compact core appear as wisps streaming away from where the impact took place. An area of rapid, extreme brightening is also visible in the animation.

What time will NASA's DART spacecraft hit an asteroid on Sept. 26? | Space