caltrek wrote: ↑Sun Oct 02, 2022 6:21 pm Hubble and Webb Pics Reveal DART Impact Was Even Bigger Than Expected
by Daniel Lawler
September 30, 2022
Introduction:Read more here: https://www.sciencealert.com/hubble-an ... -expected(Science Alert) The James Webb and Hubble telescopes on Thursday revealed their first images of a spacecraft deliberately smashing into an asteroid, as astronomers indicated that the impact looks to have been much greater than expected.
The world's telescopes turned their gaze towards the space rock Dimorphos earlier this week for a historic test of Earth's ability to defend itself against a potential life-threatening asteroid in the future.
Astronomers rejoiced as NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) impactor slammed into its pyramid-sized, rugby ball-shaped target 11 million kilometers (6.8 million miles) from Earth on Monday night.
Images taken by Earth-bound telescopes showed a vast cloud of dust expanding out of Dimorphos – and its big brother Didymos which it orbits – after the spaceship hit.
While those images showed matter spraying out over thousands of kilometers, the James Webb and Hubble images "zoom in much closer", said Alan Fitzsimmons, an astronomer at Queen's University Belfast involved in observations with the ATLAS project.
Nice...I think an impacter would be much more effective if we used a few hundred megatons of nuclear bombs behind the punch. I can't imagine a realisic defense system of protecting not having something to do with nuclear. Outside of maybe painting one side of the asteroid and slowly but surely the differences in color causes it to steer away from our planet but you're talking about many years.