SOAR Telescope catches Dimorphos's expanding comet-like tail after DART spacecraft impact

SOAR Telescope catches Dimorphos's expanding comet-like tail after DART spacecraft impact



phys.org...

NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft intentionally crashed into Dimorphos, the asteroid moonlet in the double-asteroid system of Didymos, on Monday, 26 September 2022. This was the first planetary defense test in which an impact of a spacecraft attempted to modify the orbit of an asteroid.

Two days after DART's impact, astronomers Teddy Kareta (Lowell Observatory) and Matthew Knight (US Naval Academy) used the 4.1-meter Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope at NSF's NOIRLab's Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile to capture the vast plume of dust and debris blasted from the asteroid's surface. In this new image, the dust trail—the ejecta that has been pushed away by the sun's radiation pressure, not unlike the tail of a comet—can be seen stretching from the center to the right-hand edge of the field of view, which at SOAR is about 3.1 arcminutes using the Goodman High Throughput Spectrograph. At Didymos's distance from Earth at the time of the observation, that would equate to at least 10,000 kilometers (6,000 miles) from the point of impact.

"It is amazing how clearly we were able to capture the structure and extent of the aftermath in the days following the impact," said Kareta.

a reply to: putnam6

I guess the helmsman redirected power to the thrusters to get away from the aggressive humans!

Cheers

a reply to: putnam6
Wouldn't it be crazy if the asteroid was actually heading right towards us and this wasn't a test? I mean if an asteroid was heading right towards us it would take a little while for the word to get out. Right? Don't want to cause a panic.

a reply to: putnam6

A massively observable event deep in space, will it be seen by many across the galaxy perhaps a signal to another planet/species? or will it be only viewed by us on Earth?

It is certainly awe inspiring but also if only humans on Earth see it its certainly depressing in regards to are we alone.

Imagine we see a return signal elsewhere in space.....first contact by the means of asteroid 'morse' code

"This was the first planetary defense test in which an impact of a spacecraft attempted to modify the orbit of an asteroid."

We humans are probably thought of as smart as amoeba's or a race that only cares for it's self .

IF we are able to modify the direction of an asteroid so it misses Earth but down the line smashes into another planet and destroys all life there .

Or do we play hot potato with it ? No it's your asteroid !

did it have any electrical discharge like that previous probe impact? I haven't seen anything from the Electric Universe people in my youtube feed.

Sorry. Didn't look like the test altered the course of the main body of the asteroid at all. Just blew off a bunch of rubble.

And, I think we're playing with fire. Who knows where this thing will end up if we DID alter its course. We've been wrong before. A lot.

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

a universal butterfly effect

originally posted by: Creep Thumper
Sorry. Didn't look like the test altered the course of the main body of the asteroid at all. Just blew off a bunch of rubble.

And, I think we're playing with fire. Who knows where this thing will end up if we DID alter its course. We've been wrong before. A lot.

The test was supposed to alter the course by less than 1%, it's not gonna be shooting off like the eight ball on a pool table, it's still basically on its normal orbital trajectory but that 1% will hardly affect its nearest earth approach of 800,000 miles in 2067,

NASA has models of all the known celestial bodies and you can track where they are going far into the future

originally posted by: Ravenwatcher
"This was the first planetary defense test in which an impact of a spacecraft attempted to modify the orbit of an asteroid."

We humans are probably thought of as smart as amoeba's or a race that only cares for it's self .

IF we are able to modify the direction of an asteroid so it misses Earth but down the line smashes into another planet and destroys all life there .

Or do we play hot potato with it ? No it's your asteroid !

The test was supposed to alter the course by less than 1%, it's not gonna be shooting off like the eight ball on a pool table, it's still basically on its normal orbital trajectory but that 1% will hardly affect its nearest earth approach of 800,000 miles in 2067,

NASA has models of all the known celestial bodies and you can track where they are going far into the future

a reply to: putnam6
It may not have altered the course directly but if it looses mass that would sure change things over time? Do you have any info on if this was expected or not?

a reply to: putnam6

The easiest asteroid to reach and hit would be one heading towards us I woupd think 😅

originally posted by: TDDAgain
a reply to: putnam6
It may not have altered the course directly but if it looses mass that would sure change things over time? Do you have any info on if this was expected or not?

solarsystem.nasa.gov...

originally posted by: randomthoughts12
a reply to: putnam6

The easiest asteroid to reach and hit would be one heading towards us I woupd think 😅

Nope not even close, it's the same reason we can't just launch a mission to Mars but twice a year along with the asteroid orbit is at a different angle speed and elipse we only get close a few times

go here all the info, and you can download an app and run models on planets asteroids NEO's comet etc. it's pretty cool

eyes.jpl.nasa.gov...

a reply to: putnam6

I saw it impacting, thanks for the link though but found no info on my question. Well time will tell!

originally posted by: TDDAgain
a reply to: putnam6

I saw it impacting, thanks for the link though but found no info on my question. Well time will tell!

FWIW sounds like you are suggesting the loss of mass is in danger of what exactly? You do know this is a dual asteroid where one basically rotates around the other. Plus this was the goal of the test to see the effects of the impact It was the smaller one that was impacted, but it is still firmly within the gravity of the much larger twin. No matter how much ejecta occurs

and while not related to the DART mission don't the same physics apply?

sage-advices.com...

Does the mass of a satellite affect its orbit?
Assuming we are talking about the mass of the satellite (and not the mass of the body being orbited), mass does not affect the orbital speed.

How does the gravitational force change as the distance between Earth and satellite increase?
The size of the gravitational force is proportional to the masses of the objects and weakens as the distance between them increases.

As well as from the original link

That should alter the moonlet's orbital period around the larger asteroid by several minutes – enough to be observed and measured by telescopes on Earth. but it's overall trajectory is locked in with Didymos, as well as it sounds as if they were prepared for the ejecta from the collision

DART also had a passenger – a small spacecraft contributed by the Italian Space Agency (ASI). The shoebox-sized LICIACube (Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids) split apart from DART several days before DART’s impact with the moonlet. LICIACube captured images of the impact and material (ejecta) kicked up from the moonlet.

The goal of the mission is to determine how much DART's impact altered the moonlet’s velocity in space by measuring the change in its orbit around Didymos. Scientists think the collision changed the speed of Dimorphos by a fraction of one percent. That should alter the moonlet's orbital period around the larger asteroid by several minutes – enough to be observed and measured by telescopes on Earth.

An international campaign coordinated by Northern Arizona University’s Cristina Thomas – DART’s Observations Working Group Lead – is using powerful Earth-based telescopes to study the asteroid system now that DART has hit its target.

The world got to see the asteroid system up close when DART streamed live images back to Earth as the spacecraft plunged into Dimorphos. The camera was DART’s only onboard instrument. Called DRACO (Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation), the high-resolution imager was based on the New Horizons spacecraft’s LORRI instrument. Before impact, DRACO helped DART navigate to the Didymos system.

DART also had a passenger – a small spacecraft contributed by the Italian Space Agency (ASI). The shoebox-sized LICIACube (Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids) split apart from DART several days before DART’s impact with the moonlet. LICIACube captured images of the impact and material (ejecta) kicked up from the moonlet.

a reply to: putnam6
debris blown off had their course altered 100%

NASA can't track all the rubble.

originally posted by: PacificViking
a reply to: putnam6
debris blown off had their course altered 100%

NASA can't track all the rubble.

Okay, I'll play along, but first of all, do you know the actual size of Dimorphus?

The moonlet, Dimorphos (Didymos B), is about 525 feet (160 meters) in diameter.

and how far away it is? and where Didymos and Dimorphus's orbit is taking them.

Here's a live tracker

and here is a great tracker for known near-earth asteroids which ones are inbound and outbound

asteroidaware.com...

FWIW Dimorphus's tail plume is dirt and small debris, and yes they can track it because it's the tail from Dimorphus, well until we aren't close to it anymore. The closest approach to earth was in 2003 and that was approximately 4.4 million miles away

solarsystem.nasa.gov...

The orbit of Didymos ranges from just outside the orbit of Earth (about 1 AU) to a bit beyond the orbit of Mars (about 2.27 AU) and is slightly inclined with respect to the plane of the planets (called the ecliptic), by about 3 degrees. It takes 2.11 years to make each trip around the Sun.

Didymos is classified as a member of the Amor group of asteroids, named after asteroid 1221 Amor. (For the technically minded, the Amors are near-Earth asteroids with orbits outside the orbit of Earth in which half the long axis of their orbital ellipse, referred to as the semi-major axis, is between 1 AU and 1.3 AU [that is, interior to Mars’ orbit].)

Didymos spins rapidly – rotating about once every 2.26 hours. The moonlet revolves around the larger body about once every 11.9 hours. The main asteroid and its moonlet orbit each other about 0.62 miles (1 kilometer) apart.