GROUND-BASED IMAGES OF #ASTEROID #STRIKE: Yesterday, NASA's DART spacecraft hit asteroid Dimorphos--an incredible, dramatic bullseye 11 million kilometers from Earth. Surprising even NASA, ground-based telescopes had no trouble seeing the impact. Astronomers with the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in Hawaii recorded a bright cloud of debris:

This was the result of the 1,340-pound spacecraft plunging into Dimorphos at 14,000 mph. Most of the debris is probably asteroid dust, but some of DART may be in there, too. A similar video was recorded by the 1-meter Lesedi telescope in South Africa.

Mission scientsts say DART hit the asteroid less than 17 meters off center. Think about that: 17 meters off at a distance of 11 million kilometers. NASA still has the right stuff.

Now that the dust has cleared, astronomers are monitoring #Dimorphos's #orbit to find out whether or not it has changed in response to the strike. Even a slight shift would prove that human tech can alter an asteroid's trajectory--a possible strategy for future Planetary Defense.
https://spaceweather.com/