As planned, a NASA probe and an asteroid crash into space. The maneuver is intended to test whether dangerous celestial objects can be steered past Earth in an emergency. Researchers are now analyzing the first images of the collision. What you see on it is “pretty incredible”.
The first deliberate collision of a spacecraft with an asteroid has had a big impact, according to a first video of the maneuver. The grainy black-and-white images first show the asteroid moon Dimorphos, and then a huge cloud of debris and dust ahead of Dimorphos. This indicates that NASA’s “DART” probe severely affected the celestial body, as desired.
“We have done damage to Dimorphos,” said Patrick Michel of the European Space Agency (ESA), which is involved in interpreting the experiment. The volume of “ejected material” is “rather unbelievable”. The dust cloud can now be used to estimate the density of Dimorphos’ surface.
The US space agency NASA sent the “DART” space probe into space last year in order to have it collide with the asteroid moon Dimorphos and change its orbit. On the night of Tuesday, the probe, which was about the size of a car, then raced into the celestial body at a speed of more than 23,000 kilometers per hour.
It was the first maneuver ever in space to test the defense against an asteroid threatening Earth. The aim was to slightly change Dimorphos’ orbit around the asteroid Didymos and to shorten its orbital period by up to ten minutes from the previous twelve hours.
In order to steer a dangerous asteroid past the earth in an emergency, only minimal course changes would be necessary with early intervention. A similar technique was previously only known from science fiction films such as “Armageddon”.
The Atlas asteroid warning system released video of the maneuver composed of images from its telescope in South Africa. According to Atlas scientist Larry Denneau, the telescope took a picture every 40 seconds. The resulting video therefore shows a period of two hours in time lapse. Denneau emphasized that the “DART” probe produced a “very, very large” cloud of dust upon impact. It had a diameter of several thousand kilometers.
Analysis of the “DART” experiment will continue in the coming weeks. For an even more detailed investigation, ESA wants to send out its “Hera” probe in 2024, which should reach the asteroid two years later. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is significantly involved in the mission.
