Nasa unveils new image of asteroid crash showing huge blue dust explosion
NASA has just revealed a mindblowing image of a comet-like blue dust tail from its DART mission.
On Thursday, Nasa shared a new photo from its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission.
The mission, which was carried out in September, consisted of a spacecraft smashing into a large asteroid dubbed Dimorphos.
Since the mission concluded, Nasa has been studying images taken by its Hubble Space Telescope of both the collision and aftermath.
“Repeated observations from Hubble over the last several weeks have allowed scientists to present a more complete picture of how the system’s debris cloud has evolved over time,” Nasa explained on its website.
In this latest photo, Nasa revealed that two tails of dust ejected from the Didymos-Dimorphos asteroid system following the crash.
This ejected material, also known as ‘ejecta,’ has expanded and faded in brightness as time went on after impact.
Imagery indicates that the second tail formed sometime between October 2 and October 8.
The US space agency noted that the twin tail noted is an “unexpected development”.
Although, similar behavior can sometimes be seen with comets and active asteroids.
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A mystery
The space agency said that are many factors to investigate regarding the second comet-like tail.
“The northern tail is newly developed,” Nasa explained. “In the coming months, scientists will be taking a closer look at the data from Hubble to determine how the second tail developed.”
“There are a number of possible scenarios the team will investigate,” the agency added.
The Mission
Nasa’s DART mission was first set in motion on November 23, 2021.
The spacecraft launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California.
The impact between the craft and the space rock was recorded at exactly 7:14 pm EST on September 26, 2022.
Nasa’s experiment is hoping to solidify a method for protecting Earth from future asteroids.
As of right now, Nasa says there are no asteroids larger than 140 meters in diameter known to be on a collision course with Earth for the next 100 years.