image source, CTIO/NOIRLAB/SOAR/NSF/AURA/T KARETA, M KNIGHT
Caption,
The image shows a trail of debris from the asteroid hit by a NASA spacecraft stretching for thousands of kilometers.
A new image revealed that the asteroid that was deliberately impacted by NASA’s Dart probe left a trail of debris stretching for thousands of miles.
A telescope in Chile captured the remarkable image of a comet-like trail stretching behind the giant rock.
The probe crashed last week to test whether asteroids that might threaten Earth can be pushed out of the way.
Scientists are now working to establish whether the test was successful and whether the asteroid’s trajectory was altered.
10,000 km of debris
The extraordinary image was taken two days following the collision by astronomers in Chile, who were able to capture the vast trail using the Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope (Soar).
The wake extends for more than 10,000 km and is expected to be even longer until it completely disperses and looks like floating space dust.
“It’s amazing how clearly we were able to capture the structure and extent of the followingmath in the days following the impact,” said Teddy Kareta, one of the astronomers involved in the observation.
The trail of debris will be monitored in the coming weeks and months, said Michael Knight of the US Naval Research Laboratory.
The $325 million Dart mission saw the probe deliberately crash into the asteroid, destroying the spacecraft in the process.
It will be a few weeks before scientists know for sure if their experiment has worked.
However, Lori Glaze, director of planetary science at NASA, is convinced that the mission has achieved something extraordinary.
“We’re embarking on a new era of humanity, an era where we potentially have the ability to protect ourselves from something like a dangerous asteroid impact. What an amazing thing; we’ve never had that ability before,” Glaze said.
Investigators will determine if the mission has been successful by studying the Dimorphos orbit changes around another asteroid called Didymos.
Telescopes on Earth will make precise measurements of the binary system or of two rocks.
dart is an acronym for Double Asteroid Redirection Test (double asteroid redirection test).
It was designed to do “exactly what (its name) says,” mission leader Andy Rivkin of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory told the BBC.
The technique might be used if an asteroid was headed for Earth at some point in the future, he said, describing it as a “very simple idea“: ram the spacecraft into the object of concern and use the spacecraft’s mass and velocity “to slightly change that object’s orbit enough that it doesn’t hit Earth.”
