DART Asteroid Impact from Dwelling

Fifteen days earlier than affect, the DART spacecraft deployed a tiny companion satellite tv for computer to chronicle its historic planetary protection technology demonstration. Equipped by the Italian Dwelling Company, the Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging Asteroids, aka LICIACube, recorded this image of the tournament’s aftermath. A cloud of ejecta is seen end to the most effective edge of the frame captured simplest minutes following DART’s affect with target asteroid Dimorphos whereas LICIACube used to be about 80 kilometers away. Presently about 11 million kilometers from Earth, 160 meter diameter Dimorphos is a moonlet orbiting 780 meter diameter asteroid Didymos. Didymos is seen off center within the LICIACube image. Over the impending weeks, ground-primarily primarily primarily based telescopic observations will scrutinize a tiny switch in Dimorphos’ orbit spherical Didymos to evaluate how successfully the DART affect deflected its target.