According to plan, NASA's DART probe crashed on the asteroid moon Dimorphos on September 27, 2022. The impact was so strong that the orbit time of the object around the asteroid Didymos was shortened by more than half an hour: a complete success for the mission, because only a little more than a minute was planned. The consequences of the impact on the system can now also be seen in images from the Hubble Space Telescope: as ESA reported, the Didymos-Dimorphos system is now trailing a double tail behind it.
Since the goal, Hubble has photographed the asteroid and his companion several times to document the development of these dust and rubble cloud. After September 27th, as expected, it spread out, and at the same time it decreased: the wide -ranging material reflects lights weaker than a more compact cloud. However, it is unexpected that a double line of silence has developed here, the scientists involved write - even if you have already observed this with comets and active asteroids.
According to the available data, the double tail formed after October 2nd and before October 8, not immediately after the probe impact. The northern tail seen from us was therefore new. The relationship between the comet -like tail and other characteristics of the ejection material, which were seen at different times in pictures of Hubble and other telescopes, is still unclear. A deeper look at the observation data should bring more details here.
At a speed of almost 22,000 kilometers per hour, the DART probe crashed into Dimorphos at the end of September. Shortly after the collision, the images taken by the "Webb" and "Hubble" space telescopes and numerous observatories on Earth showed the impressive tail of debris and loose debris that the impact produced. Due to the gravitational forces acting between Dimorphos and Didymos, the mission also has an effect on the direction of movement of the asteroid pair as a whole. This will also be examined in the coming weeks and months.
