Last September 26The DART spacecraft managed to deliberately collide with an asteroid called Dimorphos. The goal was to test if it could be change trajectory similar object, which in the future will pose a danger to the Earth. It was not known at the time if it had been redirected. However, a few days later, NASA announced that the time needed to orbit the other larger asteroid accompanying it had indeed changed: Didymos. In particular, this time has been reduced by about 32 minutes. And this indicates that the trajectory has been rejected. But there is still much to be learned about the impact thanks to the work of telescopes like Veteran. Hubblewhich now, moreover, has just confirmed the unexpected ejection of the tail as a result of the impact.
It was logical to find one that contained dust particles released in shock. However, James Webb’s predecessor managed to capture second tail which is currently a mystery to scientists.
According to a NASA statement, there are some hypotheses, but they have yet to be explored. over the next few months. And the fact is that although the impact has been confirmed, there is still a lot of data about it that needs to be unraveled.
Mysterious queue created by DART
Several space telescopes such as James Webb or Hubblehave been studying the impact of DART since then happened in September. Also LICIACubethis is companion satelliteprovided the relevant data. There were even completely non-DART missionswho took advantage of the aisle to commemorate the scene. This is the case of Lucy, whose goal is actually to study the Trojan asteroids. In addition, there are missions that will be released soon to continue the sequel. One of them is the European Hera, which will be powered by the Falcon 9 in 2024.
NASA, like the rest of the space agencies studying DART, will have a lot of impact data. So far, Hubble has been one of the most prolific, having made 18 observations of a system formed by Dimorphos and Didimlooking for everyone changes created by DART.
Thus, it was seen that, as expected, the ejected tail, consisting of material ejected upon impact, “expanded and dimmed in brightness time elapsed after the impact. But a second double tail was also seen, which surprised scientists much more.
According to data collected during 18 Hubble observationsthis tail must have formed a few days after the impact, from 2 to 8 October. This is something rather curious, but less strange than it sounds, since double tails have been observed on many active comets and asteroids.
As for its origin, it is still unclear how it was formed. There are some hypotheses in this regard, but they will have to be studied in the coming months. For this reason, it is time to continue analyzing data from telescopes such as Hubble, looking for any details that could explain why, where one was expected to find one ejecta tail, two could finally be seen.
Source: Hiper Textual
