Didymos-Dimorphos System After DART Impact

Didymos-Dimorphos System After DART Impact

These three panels capture the breakup of the asteroid Dimorphos when it was deliberately hit by NASA's 1,200-pound Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission spacecraft on September 26, 2022. Hubble Space Telescope had a ringside view of the space demolition derby. The top panel, taken 2 hours after impact, shows an ejecta cone of an estimated 1,000 tons of dust.

The center frame shows the dynamic interaction within the asteroid's binary system that starts to distort the cone shape of the ejecta pattern about 17 hours after the impact. The most prominent structures are rotating, pinwheel-shaped features. The pinwheel is tied to the gravitational pull of the companion asteroid, Didymos.

In the bottom frame Hubble next captures the debris being swept back into a comet-like tail by the pressure of sunlight on the tiny dust particles. This stretches out into a debris train where the lightest particles travel the fastest and farthest from the asteroid. The mystery is compounded when Hubble records the tail splitting in two for a few days.

Credits

Science

NASA, ESA, STScI, Jian-Yang Li (PSI)

Image Processing

Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

About The Object
Object Name Didymos-Dimorphos System
Object Description Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) on asteroid Dimorphos
About The Data
Data Description These images were created from HST data from proposal: (J.-Y. Li).
Instrument WFC3/UVIS
Exposure Dates Sep 27, 28, and Oct 08, 2022
Filters F350LP
About The Image
Color Info The images are separate exposures acquired by the WFC3 instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. The color results from assigning a blue hue to a monochromatic (grayscale) image.
Compass Image Didymos-Dimorphos System: three images stacked vertically. Each shows a bright white spot surrounded by an irregular blue cloud. Background is black. Labels and cloud shape differ in each image.Top: September 27; 01:06:21; T+1.9 hours. Blue cloud has more material toward the upper left of the spot and less toward the lower right. Dashed white line labeled “ejecta cone” touches the left edge of the spot and forms an arc facing toward the upper left.Middle: September 28; 17:06:51; T+1.7 days. Cloud has a more triangular shape with more material to the lower left and upper right of the spot. Dashed white line labeled “curved ejecta stream” passes through the spot, with the top portion curving upward and the bottom extending down toward the lower left. Bottom: October 8; 19:62:10; T+11.9 days. Cloud is brighter toward the upper right side of the spot, with a long triangle extending toward the right. Two dash lines following the edges of the triangle are labeled “double tail formation.”
About The Object
Object Name A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
Object Description The type of astronomical object.
R.A. Position Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.
Dec. Position Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.
Constellation One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.
Distance The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs.
Dimensions The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky.
About The Data
Data Description
  • Proposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
  • Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.
Instrument The science instrument used to produce the data.
Exposure Dates The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
Filters The camera filters that were used in the science observations.
About The Image
Image Credit The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content.
Publication Date The date and time the release content became public.
Color Info A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented.
Orientation The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere.

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