The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is the first test of its kind. The first planetary defense mission launched by NASA and JHU/APL, looking to test our capability to deflect an asteroid or a comet that might be in collision trajectory with earth.
The test consisted of crashing a small spacecraft into the asteroid Dimorphos, the smallest of the double asteroid system Didymos-Dimorphos, to demonstrate if the impact can change its path and speed, and hence its orbit. Dimorphos, with a diameter of 160 meters, orbits in about 11 hours and 55 minutes around the larger asteroid Didymos, which has a diameter of 780 meters. The separation of these asteroids is small, just 1.18 kilometers; which made them perfect candidates for this demonstration.
DART was launched on November 23, 2021 and impacted Dimorphos on September 26, 2022 at 7:14 pm EDT. The impact was observed by Hubble and James Webb. This was the first time that both telescopes observed simultaneously the same objective.
The observations were made to gather information relevant to the asteroid Dimorphos like the amount of material ejected, its size, and how fast it was ejected. This information, together with that from ground-based telescopes, will help understand how effective the kinetic impact can modify the asteroid’s orbit. The coordinated observations will also answer key questions about the makeup and history of our solar system.
Both telescopes plan to monitor the double asteroid system in the next few weeks to gather more information about the ejecta cloud, as it expands to eventually disappear.
For more information about DART go to https://dart.jhuapl.edu/Mission/index.php
For information about the HST images go to https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2022/news-2022-047
For information about the JWST images go to https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/webb-hubble-capture-detailed-views-of-dart-impact