DART deliberately slammed with the asteroid Dimorphos, which is around 9.6 million kilometres from Earth, at a speed of 22,500 km/h.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope were able to see the first ever in-space test for planetary defence, which included deliberately crashing a spaceship with a tiny asteroid. Webb and Hubble made their first joint views of the same celestial object with their study of NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) collision.
Also, READ: NASA James Webb telescope's latest pics show galaxy larger than Milky Way with unusual appearance
It was on September 26, 2022, at 7:14 p.m. EDT, when DART knowingly collided with Dimorphos, the smaller of the two asteroids in the Didymos system. It was the first time the kinetic impact mitigation approach had been put to the test, in which a spaceship was used to deflect a non-threatening asteroid in order to alter its orbit. Defending against possible asteroid or comet risks is being tested with DART.
“Webb and Hubble show what we’ve always known to be true at NASA: We learn more when we work together,” said Bill Nelson, NASA Administrator. “For the first time, Webb and Hubble have simultaneously captured imagery from the same target in the cosmos: an asteroid that was impacted by a spacecraft after a seven-million-mile journey. All of humanity eagerly awaits the discoveries to come from Webb, Hubble, and our ground-based telescopes – about the DART mission and beyond.”
There are important scientific concerns about the composition and history of our solar system that may be investigated by integrating the capabilities of both observatories, making the coordinated Hubble and Webb studies more than merely an operational milestone for each observatory.
Scientists will be able to learn more about the composition of Dimorphos' surface, the amount of material expelled in the impact, and the speed at which it was ejected thanks to a combination of data from Webb and Hubble. Additionally, Webb and Hubble photographed the hit in infrared and visible light, respectively. The distribution of particle sizes in the growing dust cloud may be seen by observing the impact throughout a broad range of wavelengths, which will assist to establish whether it ejected a large number of large pieces or mostly fine particles. Scientists may learn how much an asteroid's orbit can be altered by a kinetic collision by combining this data with views from ground-based telescopes.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "Photo: NASA")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}