The the asteroid Dimorphos which was rammed days ago by a NASA space probe called DART is now leaving a trail of thousands of miles of dust and debris caused by the impact.
Astronomers captured the scene from millions of miles away with a telescope in Chile. The observations two days after the September 27 planetary defense test were recently released by a US National Science Foundation laboratory in Arizona.
The image shows a comet-like tail with a length of 10,000 kilometersformed by dust and various material expelled from the crater left by the impact.
That trail is rapidly receding from the asteroid, largely due to the pressure of the solar radiation, he said. Matteo Cavaliereof the United States Naval Research Laboratory, which performed the observation with Teddy Kareta, of the Lowell Observatory, using the SOAR telescope (Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope), in Chile.
Scientists hope so the tail still stretches and it expanded further, becoming so weak that it was undetectable.
“At the moment, the material will be like any other powder floating in the solar system, ”Knight said in an email Tuesday.
Further observations are planned to determine the quantity and type of material expelled from Dimorphosa satellite smaller than 160 meters orbiting a larger asteroid, Didymos.
Launched nearly a year ago, NASA’s DART space probe was destroyed in the collision. The $ 325 million mission to deflect the asteroid’s orbit was a test for the day a large space body will make its way to Earth. Dimorfo and Didimo they have never represented and do not represent a danger to the planetNASA said.
Source: Clarin
