New research on asteroid dust could tell us more about the history of our solar system.
. The spirals and tail were redder than the initial debris cloud, which means they were possibly made with larger particles.
This series of images, taken with the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, shows the evolution of the cloud of debris that was ejected when NASA’s DART spacecraft collided with the asteroid Dimorphos. The first image was taken on September 26, 2022, just before the impact, and the last one was taken almost one month later on October 25. The white arrow in each panel marks the direction of the Sun. CREDIT: ESO/Opitom et al.
“Impacts between asteroids happen naturally, but you never know it in advance,” Cyrielle Opitom, study co-author and astronomer from University of Edinburgh, said. “DART is a really great opportunity to study a controlled impact, almost as in a laboratory.” Using MUSE allowed the team to break up light emitted from the impact cloud into a rainbow-like pattern and then search for traces of different gasses. They particularly searched for oxygen and water coming from ice that was exposed by the impact with DART, but did not find either.
“Asteroids are not expected to contain significant amounts of ice, so detecting any trace of water would have been a real surprise,”They were also not able to detect any traces of the propellant DART used, as there likely wouldn’t have been enough left in the tank from the spacecraft’s propulsion system.
Malaysia Latest News, Malaysia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Why car prices are still so high — and why they are unlikely to fall anytime soonThe average new vehicle costs nearly $49,000, an almost $10,000 increase from before the pandemic. This is a look at today's deeply weird auto market:
Read more »
NASA confirms success of DART mission, proving humanity can deflect killer asteroids with rocketsFour new studies confirm that NASA's DART mission, which crashed a rocket into the asteroid Dimorphos, changed the asteroid's trajectory and could potentially save Earth one day, given enough time to prepare.
Read more »
Hubble Movie of DART Asteroid Impact Debris Reveals Surprising and Remarkable ChangesThe NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured a series of photos of rapid changes to the asteroid Dimorphos when it was deliberately hit by a 545-kilogram (1,200-pound) spacecraft on September 26, 2022. The primary objective of the NASA mission, called DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test), was to
Read more »
Aftermath of DART Asteroid Impact Seen by Very Large Telescope in ChileNASA's historic mission to deflect an asteroid kicked up voluminous debris into space.
Read more »
Morphology and spectral properties of the DART impact ejecta with VLT/MUSE | Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A)Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A) is an international journal which publishes papers on all aspects of astronomy and astrophysics
Read more »
Latest DART asteroid impact reveals hidden world of far-away asteroidsVLT's MUSE and FORS2 instruments captured changes in the asteroid's surface and debris cloud after the recent DART impact test.
Read more »