When a NASA spacecraft intentionally crashed into an asteroid on September 26, the collision caused the space rock to release a cometlike tail. An array of telescopes, including the Hubble Space Telescope, were perfectly positioned to capture the
impact was successful, changing Dimorphos’ orbital period around Didymos by 33 minutes, according to one of five new studies published Wednesday in the journal Nature that describe the aftermath of the event. ‘Active asteroid’: Dimorphos after impact The Hubble clip reveals how the collision turned Dimorphos into an “active asteroid,” a space rock that orbits like an asteroid but has a tail of material like a comet, according to NASA.
and the future of planetary defense One of the contributing factors to has successfully done both,” the authors wrote in the study. Researchers from the SETI Institute and citizen scientists participating in the Unistellar telescope network also observed the