The Didymos asteroid was hit by the Double Asteroid Redirect Test on September 26th. As it rapidly approached Dimorphos, the event was live-streamed all around the world, showing footage from DART's Didymos and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation. There were boulders on the moonlet in the last few seconds.
The live stream ended about 38 seconds after impact, signalling that DART had successfully impacted Dimorphos and was destroyed. Astronomers from the Indian Ocean to the Arabian Peninsula used telescopes to watch the impact. The Les Makes Observatory on the island of Le Reunion captured several images of the impact. These were used to create a real-time video that showed the asteroid as it was pushed away.
The observation campaign was coordinated by the Near- Earth Object Coordination Centre. The campaign was one of several around the world that happened to coincide with DART's successful test. There were some observation stations that were not successful due to cloud cover and other issues.
"We weren't sure what to expect, but it was an emotional moment as the footage came in."
As you can see from the video, the asteroid was much brighter after impact. The change in the moonlet's trajectory caused more sunlight to be reflected from its surface. Less than a minute after impact, a cloud of ejected material began to reflect the sun's light. In thirteen seconds, the time-lapse video shows what happened. Dora Fhring is an astronomer.
“This was the conclusion of weeks of discussions, meetings, accurate planning and observational design by our team, together with local observers and scientists at all our collaborating stations. This fantastic campaign has produced data that our astronomers, together with the whole DART collaboration, will now begin to analyse to extract valuable scientific information on the effects of the impact.”
Astronomers will use ground-based telescopes to determine how much the moonlet has changed. The venerable Hubble will be used to make observations. The data will be used to calculate any changes in Dimorphos' period as it continues to travel around Didymos, which will confirm that the impact method is an effective way of altering the trajectory of asteroids and preventing them from impacting Earth.
The Hera mission will be launched in October of 2024 and will rendezvous with the double-asteroid system in December of 2026. Hera will be the first craft to rendezvous with a double-asteroid system and perform a post- impact survey. The Hera mission manager is Ian Carnelli.
“The results from DART will prepare us for Hera’s visit to the Didymos binary system to examine the aftermath of this impact a few years from now. Hera will help us understand what happened to Dimorphos, the first celestial body to be measurably moved by humankind, and ultimately to protect ourselves from space rocks that could one day do the same.”
Further reading is done by the European Space Agency.
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