Smashing Space Debris in Action

NASA launched a spacecraft with the asteroid Dimorphos in the previous year. The debris that resulted has now been photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope in amazing depth, exposing a sparkling array of pebbles.

The 600-kilogram spacecraft Dimorphos, which orbits the considerably bigger asteroid Didymos, was observed by the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) to determine whether it might alter the orbit of the space rock as a practise run for diverting future dangerous asteroids. The mission was successful in shortening Dimorphos’ orbital period by around 33 minutes, with the change taking effect in September 2022.

The Hubble House Telescope was utilised by David Jewitt from the College of California, Los Angeles and his colleagues in December 2022 to gather further information regarding the collision-related debris. As you can see in the image above, they found 37 enormous stones that ranged in size from 1 to nearly 7 metres wide.

Instead of fragments from Dimorphous’ body alone, it is likely that the pebbles were loosely attached to its surface. Additionally, they are moving farther away from Dimorphous than.8 kilometres per hour, and their total mass is about.1 percent of their parent asteroid.

“This tells us for the very first time what happens when you hit an asteroid and see material coming out up to the major dimensions,” claimed Jewitt in a statement. The stones are among the faintest objects that have ever been captured by our photovoltaic approach.

The European Space Agency’s Hera mission, which is slated to leave Earth in October 2024 and arrive at Didymos and Dimorphos at the end of 2026, will conduct more research on this cloud of stones. Astronomers might be able to determine the precise paths of the boulders using the current Hubble images and long-term Hera observations.