Posted on 10/05/2022 3:15:48 PM PDT by MtnClimber
Explanation: What happens if you crash a spaceship into an asteroid? In the case of NASA's DART spaceship and the small asteroid Dimorphos, as happened last week, you get quite a plume. The goal of the planned impact was planetary protection -- to show that the path of an asteroid can be slightly altered, so that, if done right, a big space rock will miss the Earth. The high brightness of the plume, though, was unexpected by many, and what it means remains a topic of research. One possibility is that 170-meter wide Dimorphos is primarily a rubble pile asteroid and the collision dispersed some of the rubble in the pile. The featured time-lapse video covers about 20 minutes and was taken from the Les Makes Observatory on France's Reunion Island, off the southeast coast of southern Africa. One of many Earth-based observatories following the impact, the initial dot is primarily Dimorphos's larger companion: asteroid Didymos. Most recently, images show that the Didymos - Dimorphos system has developed comet-like tails.
For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.
Todays image is a youtube video at the source link.
Todays image is a youtube video at the source link.
Did the impact change the trajectory of the asteroid at all? I know that was the purpose of the launch. Pretty cool, in any event.
Probably too soon to measure movement of the mini-moon very accurately.
Makes sense.
“Did the impact change the trajectory of the asteroid at all? I know that was the purpose of the launch. Pretty cool, in any event.”
If we would have hit it with a Russian Belgorad sub (really a modified oscar II), “betcha” the enemy asteroid would have moved...
Should have told Putin the asteroid was trying to join NATO - 🇺🇸😎👍
“Did the impact change the trajectory of the asteroid at all? I know that was the purpose of the launch. Pretty cool, in any event.”
If we would have hit it with a Russian Belgorad sub (really a modified oscar II), “betcha” the enemy asteroid would have moved...
Should have told Putin the asteroid was trying to join NATO - 🇺🇸😎👍
I don’t know if they have determined the effects yet.
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