Hubble image shows several dozen boulders flung from Dimorphos
Click for original image.
Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have photographed several dozen boulders that were flung off of the asteroid Dimorphos following the impact by the space probe DART. The picture to the right, reduced and brightened to more clearly show those boulders, was taken on December 19, 2022, four months after DART’s impact.
These are among the faintest objects Hubble has ever photographed inside the Solar System. The ejected boulders range in size from 1 meter to 6.7 meters across, based on Hubble photometry. They are drifting away from the asteroid at around a kilometre per hour.
The blue streak is the dust tail that has streamed off of Dimorphos since the impact, pushed away from the sun by the solar wind.
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Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
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Click for original image.
Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have photographed several dozen boulders that were flung off of the asteroid Dimorphos following the impact by the space probe DART. The picture to the right, reduced and brightened to more clearly show those boulders, was taken on December 19, 2022, four months after DART’s impact.
These are among the faintest objects Hubble has ever photographed inside the Solar System. The ejected boulders range in size from 1 meter to 6.7 meters across, based on Hubble photometry. They are drifting away from the asteroid at around a kilometre per hour.
The blue streak is the dust tail that has streamed off of Dimorphos since the impact, pushed away from the sun by the solar wind.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
That is the exact scenario that points to REFUSING TO TRY TO DEFLECT asteroids with any kind of bomb.
Now there is this shot gun blast of large bolides careening through space. Where is it going? I have been looking but I can’t find anything in Lay man’s language that says whether or not this thing crosses Earth Orbit. Even thought some call it a Near Earth Object.
ACK
Andrew Winter: Dimorphus and its parent asteroid Didymos are in a near Earth orbit, but that orbit is no threat to Earth, at all. Before DART was launched scientists choose this asteroid because of this definite fact.
Moreover, the boulders are tiny. Almost all would burn up in the atmosphere if they did happen to cross the Earth’s path.
Having said that, you point is still correct. Blowing up a rubble-pile asteroid is a fool’s errand, and would likely cause more problems. It not only would not destroy the asteroid, it would add more objects that would hit the ground over a wider area.
DART however was not testing how to blow up an asteroid, but how an impact might adjust its orbit. If you could change the orbit enough you could prevent a threatened Earth impact entirely. DART showed it could change Dimorphus’ solar orbit, but we still don’t know how much exactly. We need time to track it to measure the full change.