After Getting Slammed by DART, Asteroid Dimorphos has Grown a Tail
Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2022 3:51 pm
After Getting Slammed by DART, Asteroid Dimorphos has Grown a Tail
https://www.universetoday.com/157939/af ... wn-a-tail/
More images and details keep coming in about the asteroid intentionally smashed by NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft last week, and this latest image is stunning.
A telescope in Chile called SOAR took an image of the asteroid Dimorphos two days after the impact by DART and found the asteroid is trailing a stream of debris more than 10,000 kilometers (6,000 miles) long. However, other reports indicate that the debris trail could now be as long as 50,000 km (31,000 miles), and could still be growing.
Astronomers using the NSF’s NOIRLab’s SOAR telescope in Chile captured the vast plume of dust and debris blasted from the surface of the asteroid Dimorphos by NASA’s DART spacecraft when it impacted on 26 September 2022. In this image, the dust trail is more than 10,000 kilometer long. Credit: NOIRlab.
Astronomers Teddy Kareta from the Lowell Observatory and Matthew Knight from the US Naval Academy used the 4.1-meter Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. They captured the best image yet of the huge plume of dust and debris that was blasted from the asteroid’s surface by DART.
https://www.universetoday.com/157939/af ... wn-a-tail/
More images and details keep coming in about the asteroid intentionally smashed by NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft last week, and this latest image is stunning.
A telescope in Chile called SOAR took an image of the asteroid Dimorphos two days after the impact by DART and found the asteroid is trailing a stream of debris more than 10,000 kilometers (6,000 miles) long. However, other reports indicate that the debris trail could now be as long as 50,000 km (31,000 miles), and could still be growing.
Astronomers using the NSF’s NOIRLab’s SOAR telescope in Chile captured the vast plume of dust and debris blasted from the surface of the asteroid Dimorphos by NASA’s DART spacecraft when it impacted on 26 September 2022. In this image, the dust trail is more than 10,000 kilometer long. Credit: NOIRlab.
Astronomers Teddy Kareta from the Lowell Observatory and Matthew Knight from the US Naval Academy used the 4.1-meter Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. They captured the best image yet of the huge plume of dust and debris that was blasted from the asteroid’s surface by DART.