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The 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 spacecraft on 26 September 2022. The primary objective of the
NASA mission, called DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test), was to test our ability to alter the asteroid’s
trajectory as it orbits its larger companion asteroid, Didymos. Though Dimorphos poses no threat to Earth, data
from the mission could help inform researchers how to potentially change an asteroid’s path away from Earth, if
ever necessary.
Hubble’s resulting time-lapse movie of the aftermath of the collision reveals surprising and remarkable changes as dust
and chunks of debris were flung into space from the wounded asteroid. Smashing head-on into the asteroid at 21 000
kilometres per hour, the DART impactor blasted over 900 000 kilograms of dust off of the asteroid.