Image caught by the Italian Space Agencys LICIACube a few minutes after the deliberate accident of NASAs Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) objective with its target asteroid, Dimorphos, recorded on September 26, 2022. Credit: ASI/NASA
On Monday, NASAs Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) effectively affected its asteroid target Dimorphos after 10 months of flying through space. During the spacecrafts last minutes prior to impact, DART had the ability to capture images of Dimorphos using its Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO). As gotten out of a 14,000 miles per hour crash, the spacecraft was wiped out as it slammed into the asteroid.
No more images will be coming from the DART spacecraft, its CubeSat companion Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids (LICIACube), released from the spacecraft fifteen days prior to impact. Supplied by the Italian Space Agency, LICIACubes objective is to capture pictures of DARTs impact and of the asteroids resulting cloud of ejected matter. In tandem with the images returned by DRACO, LICIACubes images will help supply a view of the crashs impacts to assist researchers better identify the efficiency of kinetic effect in deflecting an asteroid.
LICIACube doesnt carry a big antenna, so images will be downloading extremely gradually over the next couple of weeks. Nevertheless, the first have actually already shown up:
Image recorded by the Italian Space Agencys LICIACube a few minutes after the intentional collision of NASAs Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) objective with its target asteroid, Dimorphos, caught on September 26, 2022. Credit: ASI/NASA
Image captured by the Italian Space Agencys LICIACube a few minutes after the deliberate accident of NASAs Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) objective with its target asteroid, Dimorphos, caught on September 26, 2022. Credit: ASI/NASA
See DARTs final DRACO images before impact.