I'm glad that switching #Hubble to single-gyro pointing was not necessary until now; because the telescope did important observations of the #DARTMission impact and its aftermath through last year.
#PPOD: This Hubble Space Telescope image shows boulders ejected from the asteroid Dimorphos after the DART spacecraft slammed into it in September 2022. The bright object with a tail is Dimorphos, and the tiny white dots clustered around it are boulders ranging in size from 1 to 6.7 meters (3 to 22 feet) in diameter. Credit: NASA, ESA, D. Jewitt (UCLA)
Agata Rożek describes current plans for Earth-based lightcurve observations of #Didymos this year; to give a midpoint between the #DARTMission and the #HeraMission.
If anyone on the South Island has >20 cm telescopes that could be driven to a particular stretch of road south of Dunedin; the asteroids #Didymos and #Dimorphos will apparently run in front of a star as seen from there on 2024 May 5 - https://lagrange.oca.eu/fr/blog .
Not much notice; but maybe someone is already planning something?
@asrivkin et al. 2023, "Near to Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy of (65803) Didymos as observed by JWST: Characterization Observations Supporting the Double Asteroid Redirection Test" - https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.11168
One year ago today the #DARTMission crashed into asteroid Dimorphos. This image was taken by the accompanying #LICIACube spacecraft and shows ejecta streaming out after the impact.
@tom30519 Nah it's very uncommon, I can see how someone could see benefit in it for some kind of analysis task, but I think it's a bad choice for an image you want to share with a general audience.
The original filename is "_5_1_licia_for_tom" which suggests it's just an image that was shared between scientists in an email and somehow found it's way into the official press release. It's still the highest resolution image that was shared from LICIACube to my knowledge, which is a bit of a shame.
Dimorphos's Orbit Might Be Continuing to Decay, a Year After the DART Impact
After NASA's DART mission slammed into asteroid Dimorphous in September 2022, astronomers measured that the orbital period had decreased by about 32 minutes. The dinosaurs were avenged. Astronomers measured the orbital period a month later and discovered that it had increased to 34 minutes - 2 minutes longer than the first measurements. Even though it was a single impact from DART, some force continued to slow the asteroid's orbit, and astronomers don't know what that mechanism might be.
🛰️☄️ La mission ESA #HERA prend forme : le module de propulsion a été couplé au module central chez OHB en Allemagne. #HeraMission va observer les effets de l’impact de #DARTMission sur l’astéroïde #Dimorphos. Décollage prévu en octobre 2024.
Article à venir sur le blog !