These images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, taken 22 minutes, 5 hours, and 8.2 hours after NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) intentionally impacted Dimorphos, show expanding plumes of ejecta from the asteroid’s body. This event was the world’s first test of the kinetic impact technique using a spacecraft to deflect an asteroid by modifying its orbit.
The Hubble images show ejecta from the impact that appear as rays stretching out from the body of the asteroid. The bolder, fanned-out spike of ejecta to the left of the asteroid is in the general direction from which DART approached. In the Hubble images, astronomers estimate that the brightness of the Didymos system increased by 3 times after impact. They’re also particularly intrigued by how that brightness then held steady, even eight hours after impact.
These observations, when combined with data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, will allow scientists to gain knowledge about the nature of the surface of Dimorphos, how much material was ejected by the collision, how fast it was ejected, and the distribution of particle sizes in the expanding dust cloud.
Hubble will observe the Didymos-Dimorphos system ten more times over the next three weeks to monitor how the ejecta cloud expands and fades over time.
Hubble observations were conducted in one filter, WFC3/UVIS F350LP, and assigned the color blue.
Credits
Science
NASA, ESA, Jian-Yang Li (PSI)
Image Processing
Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Dimorphos |
| Object Description | Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) on asteroid Dimorphos |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | This image was created from HST data from proposal: (J. Li). |
| Instrument | WFC3/UVIS |
| Exposure Dates | 26-27 Sept 2022 |
| Filters | F350LP |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | The images are separate exposures acquired by the WFC3 instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. The color results from assigning a blue hue to a monochromatic (grayscale) image. |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
