First images show massive impact from NASA asteroid crash

The first close-up images of NASA’s asteroid collision show a massive plume of bright debris strewn across space. See photos.

The first stunning images of a NASA spacecraft crashing into an asteroid have been released.

The series of four images show the before-and-after of the Didymos asteroid system and debris surrounding Dimorphos after the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spaceship crashed into it.

The impact was captured by the Italian space agency’s tinyspace craft, LICIACube, with images arriving to earth about three hours later.

“We’re really very proud,” Elisabetta Dotto, science team lead at Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), said during a news conference.

Didymos and Dimorphos just after DART’s impact, as seen by LICIACube. Picture: NASA/ASI

Didymos and Dimorphos just after DART’s impact, as seen by LICIACube. Picture: NASA/ASI

Didymos and Dimorphos just after DART’s impact, as seen by LICIACube. Picture: NASA/ASI

Didymos and Dimorphos just after DART’s impact, as seen by LICIACube. Picture: NASA/ASI

Dotto said the images would help understand the structure and composition of Dimorphos, adding that more LICIACube images will be released in the coming days showing Dimorphos is surrounded by bright and hazy debris. “

“Dimorphos is completely covered really by this by this emission of dust and detritus produced by the impact,” Dotto said.

It was the first look at how an asteroid would react after being struck by a spacecraft.

NASA's Atlas Project photos from Hawaii the before and after of the DART Dimorphos. Picture: AFP

NASA SPACECRAFT CRASHES INTO ASTEROID

A NASA spacecraft rammed an asteroid at blistering speed in a historic test of humanity’s ability to prevent a cosmic object devastating life on Earth.

“Impact confirmed for the world’s first planetary defence test mission,” said a graphic on the space agency’s livestream, as engineers and scientists erupted in cheers.

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spaceship launched from California last November slammed into the asteroid 9.6 million kilometres away, with the spacecraft named Dart ploughing into the small space rock at 22,500 km/h.

Dart’s radio signal abruptly ceased — and will be days or even weeks before we determine how much the asteroid’s path was changed.

Neither the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos, nor the big brother it orbits, called Didymos, pose any threat as the pair loop the Sun, passing some seven million miles from Earth at nearest approach.

A television at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, captures the final images from the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) just before it smashes into the asteroid Dimorphos. Picture: AFP

Dimorphos just before the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) made impact with the asteroid, as watched by the team (bottom left) at DART headquarters in Laurel, Maryland. Picture: AFP

But the experiment is one NASA has deemed important to carry out before an actual need is discovered.

“No, this is not a movie plot,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson tweeted.

“We’ve all seen it on movies like ‘Armageddon,’ but the real-life stakes are high,” he said in a prerecorded video.

Dart’s on-board camera saw Dimorphos an hour before impact.

“Woo hoo,” Johns Hopkins mission systems engineer Elena Adams said.

“We’re seeing Dimorphos, so wonderful, wonderful.”

WATCH THE REPLAY FROM NASA BELOW:

By striking Dimorphos head on, NASA hopes to push it into a smaller orbit, shaving ten minutes off the time it takes to encircle Didymos, which is currently 11 hours and 55 minutes – a change that will be detected by ground telescopes in the days that follow.

The DART spacecraft transmitted images back to Earth as it approached the asteroid, and the impact will be monitored by a cubesat, LICIACube, which separated from DART.

From a safe distance, LICIACube’s cameras will record the impact, transmitting its pictures and other data back to Earth.

The DART mission will show that intentionally crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid is an effective way to change its speed and trajectory. What we learn could be applied in future to protect Earth from potentially hazardous asteroids.

A television at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, captures the final images from the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) as it approaches asteroid Dimorphos (R), past asteroid Didymos (L). Picture: AFP

Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, manages the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (CDSCC), one of three stations around the world that make up NASA’s Deep Space Network.

CDSCC has supported the DART mission since its launch in November 2021 and will receive the final signals from the spacecraft as it approaches and impacts asteroid Dimorphos. CDSCC will also receive images and data from the LICIA cubesat as it follows DART’s impact with the asteroid.

The European Space Agency’s New Norcia deep space tracking station in Western Australia, also managed by CSIRO, has been providing support to NASA’s Deep Space Network for the DART mission since May 2022.

During the final stages of the mission, the 35-metre antenna at New Norcia will receive data from the spacecraft that will be used by scientists to estimate the mass of the asteroid, surface type and impact site.