"Dart Impact Asteroid Brightens 3 Times Over 8 Hours" [Reading Science]

NASA Releases Before-and-After Images of DART Spacecraft-Asteroid Collision
JWST and Hubble Observe the Same Celestial Body Together for the First Time

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the most advanced telescope currently in existence, and the Hubble Space Telescope have vividly observed the world's first asteroid collision experiment, capturing the moment the asteroid emitted a bright light upon impact.

NASA announced on the 29th (U.S. Eastern Time) that JWST and Hubble captured the scene of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft colliding with Dimorphos, the moon of the Didymos asteroid, near Jupiter about 11 million km from Earth at approximately 7:14 PM on the 26th. This is the world's first "Planetary Defence" project aimed at determining whether the trajectory of a near-Earth asteroid can be altered by physically impacting it. This is the first time the two most powerful space telescopes have simultaneously observed the same celestial event.

According to NASA, JWST used its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) to observe the expected impact site on Dimorphos’s surface once before the collision and continued to image the same spot for several hours afterward. Over a total observation period exceeding five hours, it captured 10 images. A research team led by Dr. Heidi Hammel, affiliated with the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), an international consortium of astronomers, has been formed and will analyze the data over the coming weeks before releasing the results.

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Hubble also used its Wide Field Camera in visible light to photograph Dimorphos’s surface just before the collision and 15 minutes afterward. The images transmitted by Hubble clearly show the effects of the impact visible to the naked eye. Immediately after the collision, large-scale debris and dust spread out from the asteroid’s body, causing it to brighten. A thick fan-shaped plume appeared on the left side of the asteroid where the DART spacecraft approached, producing a vivid spike captured in the images. Hubble confirmed that the brightness of the Didymos-Dimorphos binary asteroid system increased threefold after the collision and that this brightness persisted for over eight hours. Over the next three weeks, Hubble plans to observe the binary asteroid more than ten additional times to monitor the settling of the dust cloud generated by the collision and the gradual fading of the brightened light.

Photos of the DART spacecraft-asteroid collision before and after, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Source=NASA

NASA stated, "These observations will allow scientists to determine what materials make up the surface of the Dimorphos asteroid and to understand the amount and velocity of debris ejected by the collision." They added, "By analyzing images taken at various wavelengths, including JWST’s infrared and Hubble’s visible light, we can assess the particle size and distribution within the expanding dust cloud following the impact."