Hubble captures DART impact (annotated)

This video combines three of the images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured after NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) intentionally impacted Dimorphos, a moonlet asteroid in the double asteroid system of Didymos. The animation spans from 22 minutes after impact to 8.2 hours after the collision took place.

As a result of the impact, the brightness of the system increased by three times. The brightness also appears to hold fairly steady, even eight hours after impact.

Hubble will observe Dimorphos ten more times over the next three weeks to monitor how the ejecta cloud expands and fades over time.

Hubble observations were conducted in one filter, WFC3/UVIS F350LP, and assigned the colour blue.

For a version without annotation, click here.

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