Skip to main content

DART asteroid impact imaged by Webb and Hubble space telescopes

Earlier this week NASA successfully crashed its DART spacecraft into an asteroid around seven million miles from Earth.

The mission was a test to see if the force of such an impact can alter the course of an asteroid’s flight. If it can — and we’re waiting for the results to come in — then we can use the technology for planetary defense if we ever spot a hazardous asteroid heading straight for Earth.

A video stream from DART transmitted astonishingly clear images of the spacecraft’s final moments before crashing into the Dimorphos asteroid at 14,000 mph.

On Thursday, we learned that two of NASA’s most prominent space telescopes, Webb and Hubble, also had their cameras trained on the big event.

It turns out this was the first time Webb and Hubble were used to simultaneously observe the same celestial target, and both captured the moment of impact.

DART, you rocked out there. 🪨#ICYMI, Webb and @NASAHubble both captured the effects of #DARTMission colliding with an asteroid as a test of planetary defense. This is the first time both telescopes observed the same target at the same time: https://t.co/CuVzJXyK2F pic.twitter.com/QvgoqBQd8r

— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) September 29, 2022

The Hubble team posted a short clip comprising three images showing a flash just after DART smashed into the space rock at high speed. NASA said the footage spans from 22 minutes after impact to just over eight hours after the collision occurred.

Check out Hubble’s “after” shots from #DARTMission impact!

Earlier this week, @NASA intentionally crashed a spacecraft into Dimorphos, a non-threatening asteroid moonlet in the double-asteroid system of Didymos, in a test of planetary defense: https://t.co/pe2qeFDYoS pic.twitter.com/VQ5X1pQlEy

— Hubble (@NASAHubble) September 29, 2022

The different colors in the images are down to Webb and Hubble capturing the impact in different wavelengths of light — Webb in infrared and Hubble in visible. The contrasting data, together with data from ground-based observatories, will help scientists understand how effectively an impact of this nature can alter an asteroid’s orbit, and also reveal more about the nature of the surface of Dimorphos and how the collision affected it.

“Webb and Hubble show what we’ve always known to be true at NASA: We learn more when we work together,” NASA chief Bill Nelson said on Thursday. “For the first time, Webb and Hubble have simultaneously captured imagery from the same target in the cosmos — an asteroid that was impacted by a spacecraft after a seven-million-mile journey. All of humanity eagerly awaits the discoveries to come from Webb, Hubble, and our ground-based telescopes, about the DART mission and beyond.”

NASA said that the coordinated Hubble and Webb observations are “more than just an operational milestone for each telescope,” explaining that combining the capabilities of the two space-based observatories will also help it to explore important science questions linked to the makeup and history of our solar system.

NASA’s Hubble telescope has been in orbit about 335 miles above Earth since 1990, sending back incredible imagery as part of its explorations. Webb, the most advanced space telescope ever built, launched at the end of last year and is now located around a million miles from Earth, where it’s also producing some magnificent work.

As it continues its groundbreaking studies of deep space, Webb will also keep an eye on Dimorphos with its Mid-Infrared Instrument and Near-Infrared Spectrograph technology in a bid to learn more about the chemical makeup of the asteroid.

Editors' Recommendations

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
James Webb image shows the majesty of the most massive known galaxy cluster
Webb’s infrared image of the galaxy cluster El Gordo (“the Fat One”) reveals hundreds of galaxies, some never before seen at this level of detail. El Gordo acts as a gravitational lens, distorting and magnifying the light from distant background galaxies. Two of the most prominent features in the image include the Thin One, located just below and left of the image center, and the Fishhook, a red swoosh at upper right. Both are lensed background galaxies.

A recent image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows the most massive galaxy cluster we know of -- one so large that it is nicknamed El Gordo, or the fat one. Thought to have a mass of over 2 quadrillion times the mass of the sun, the cluster is located 7 billion light-years away and hosts hundreds of galaxies that are gravitationally bound together.

The image was taken using Webb's NIRCam instrument, which was able to capture the most detailed look yet at this enormous cluster and the many galaxies within it.

Read more
Hubble image shows a lonely star glowing over an irregular background galaxy
The bright star BD+17 2217. Arp 263 – also known as NGC 3239 in the foreground and irregular galaxy Arp 263 in the background.

This week's image from the Hubble Space Telescope is notable for the way it was composed as much as for the object it shows. Composed of two different exposures which have been merged, it shows the star BD+17 2217 shining over the background irregular galaxy Arp 263.

Irregular galaxies are those with irregular structures, unlike elliptical galaxies or spiral galaxies such as our Milky Way. Arp 263 is patchy and cloudy, with some areas glowing brightly due to star formation while other areas appear practically bare. Such galaxies are typically formed due to interactions with other galaxies, which can occur when a massive galaxy passes by and pulls the original galaxy out of shape. In the case of Arp 263, it is thought that it developed its irregular shape when two galaxies merged.

Read more
Hubble observes a cluster of boulders around impacted asteroid Dimorphos
A NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the asteroid Dimorphos taken on 19 December 2022.

Last year, NASA deliberately crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid, in a first-of-its-kind test of planetary defense. At the time, telescopes around the world including the Hubble Space Telescope observed the impact between the DART spacecraft and the Dimorphos asteroid, capturing footage of the plumes of dust thrown up. Now, Hubble has observed Dimorphos once again and seen that a number of boulders have been ejected from the asteroid.

The Hubble image shown below was taken on 19 December 2022, around four months after the impact, and shows the bright streak of the asteroid across the sky, surrounded by small boulders which were knocked loose during the impact. This view was only possible after several months as the impact initially sent up large amounts of dust which made it difficult to see the asteroid in detail.

Read more