This image from the Hubble Space Telescope released on October 8, 2022 shows the appearance of a tail on the asteroid Dimorphos 285 hours after being hit by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) DART probe. The tail was formed from debris or dust generated by the collision of DART and Dimorphos on September 26, 2022.
After being hit by the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft in late September 2022, the orbit of the asteroid Dimorphos has shifted slightly. As a result, the period of the asteroid surrounding the larger asteroid Didymos shrank by about 4%. Changing the trajectory of the asteroid is one of Earth’s defense strategies from asteroid threats.
“For the first time, humans have been able to change the orbit of a planetary object,” said Lori Glaze, head of the planetary science division of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Space11 October 2022.
