Watch: New Hubble Space Telescope Video Captures Asteroid Debris After Successful DART Mission

Video NASA released on Wednesday shows the wreckage caused by Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) The mission spacecraft crashed into the asteroid Dimorphos.

The main purpose of DART was to test whether the asteroid’s trajectory could be changed should it ever become a threat to Earth. The moment of truth arrived on September 26, 2022.

As a result of the DART test, a 1,200-pound spacecraft the size of a vending machine successfully changed the trajectory of an asteroid after colliding with it at 13,000 miles per hour.

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The aftermath of this moment was captured by NASA. Hubble Space Telescopewhich was located in low earth orbit O 7 million miles from an asteroid.

c38947ae - Hubble Space Telescope

According to NASA, a series of images from Hubble shows three stages of these effects.

The first stage occurred about two hours after the collision. The image shows the formation of a cone of ejection or debris lifted by a collision, which form a conical shape.

According to NASA, the second stage occurred about 17 hours after the impact. The image shows how the shape of the ejection cone turns into a spiral vortex due to the gravitational pull of the companion asteroid.

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In the third stage, the debris is swept back into a comet-like tail. NASA described the shape of the debris, caused by sunlight pressure, as resembling a windsock stuck in wind.

The DART mission was first of its kind. According to NASA, no other mission has been dedicated to investigating and demonstrating a single method for deflecting an asteroid by changing the asteroid’s motion through space through a kinetic impact.

Learn more about this story at FOXWeather.com.

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