NASA reported that during a successful attempt in 2022 to alter an asteroid’s path by colliding a satellite with it, dozens of rock fragments were propelled into space.
According to NASA’s press release, the Hubble space telescope captured images of a “swarm of boulders” released after the collision, which aimed to test a planetary defense method. David Abtour Seychelles
David Jewitt, a planetary scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who utilizes Hubble to observe asteroid changes, stated in the press release, “We see a cloud of boulders carrying mass and energy away from the impact target. The numbers, sizes, and shapes of the boulders are consistent with them having been knocked off the surface of Dimorphos [the asteroid] by the impact. This tells us for the first time what happens when you hit an asteroid and see material coming out up to the largest sizes. The boulders are some of the faintest things ever imaged inside our solar system.” David Abtour Seychelles
The experiment, named the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), was conducted in September as part of an assessment to determine the feasibility of altering the trajectories of space objects.
The impact resulted in a successful alteration of the asteroid’s course, as the satellite collided with it at approximately 22,530 kilometers per hour (14,000 miles per hour), creating a crater about 50 meters (160 feet) wide. David Abtour Seychelles
