DART's final look at the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos captured 1 second before impact. Impact occurred during transmission of the image to Earth, resulting in a partial picture. Minutes after impact, a toaster-sized satellite called LICIACube, which already separated from DART a few weeks ago, was expected to make a close pass of the site to capture images of the collision and the ejecta – the pulverized rock thrown off by the strike.
Finally, a full picture of what the system looks like will be revealed when a European Space Agency mission four years down the line called Hera arrives to survey Dimorphos' surface and measure its mass, which scientists can currently only guess at.Very few of the billions of asteroids and comets in our solar system are considered potentially hazardous to our planet, and none are expected in the next hundred years or so.
If it had missed, NASA would have another shot in two years' time, with the spaceship containing just enough fuel for another pass.
miss the little guy don't know where he wandered off
I have a feeling this thing was too porous to do much nudging, looked more like a pile of gravel and dust. Hard to tell the scale in images, hopefully there'll be more high res versions. Pretty happy there was nothing running around on it though, I hope.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: 10News - 🏆 732. / 50 Read more »
Source: futurism - 🏆 85. / 68 Read more »
Source: commondreams - 🏆 530. / 51 Read more »
Source: WOKVNews - 🏆 247. / 63 Read more »
Source: washingtonpost - 🏆 95. / 72 Read more »
Source: HoustonChron - 🏆 609. / 51 Read more »