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First images released of NASA’s successful DART asteroid impact

By
Patrick Reilly
Published Sep. 28, 2022
Updated Sep. 28, 2022, 10:52 a.m. ET

Stunning images showing NASA’s DART spacecraft’s intentional collision with an asteroid were released Tuesday.

The Italian Space Agency shared the first images snapped by the tiny camera trailing the vending-machine-sized spacecraft, the LICIACube — or  Light Italian Cubesat for Imaging of Asteroids.

The images were transmitted seven million miles back to earth about three hours following NASA’s successful impact on the asteroid Monday night during a test run to prepare for when a massive space rock actually threatens Earth, .

The images from Agenzia Spaziale Italiana show the asteroid before and after impact, with clouds of debris surrounding the 530-foot space rock, called Dimorphos. One image a brilliant flash of light as the spacecraft hit.

Asteroid moonlet Dimorphos as seen by the DART spacecraft 11 seconds before impact in this image taken by DART’s on board DRACO imager from a distance of 42 miles
DART collided with Dimorphos at 15,000 miles per hour on Monday around 7:15 p.m. via Reuters

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

The images are the first of several to be released in the coming days.

This combination of images obtained from NASA's Atlas Project at the University of Hawaii shows photos (L-R before, during and after) of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) hitting asteroid Dimorphos on Sept. 26, 2022.
The images show asteroid Dimorphos before, during and after its collision with DART. NASA/University of Hawaii /AFP via Getty Images

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

DART, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, smashed into Dimorphos at 15,000 miles per hour around 7:15 p.m. Monday night, destroying the craft as expected.

The spacecraft successfully knocked it out of its 12-hour orbit, scientists say. 

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).
No known asteroid larger than 450 feet is expected to hit Earth over the next 100 years. AFP via Getty Images

Astronomers are now monitoring Didymos asteroid system to measure how much Dimorphos’ orbit sped up, according to Space.com.

“We still need a little patience, let the scientists speak to understand the value of these images,” Giorgio Saccoccia, President of ASI, reporters.

The $325 million mission will likely only benefit future generations, as no known asteroid larger than 450 feet is projected to hit the Earth over the next century, the Planetary Defense Coordination Office.

LICIACube, Italy’s first deep space mission, is now barreling through the depths of space into oblivion as it continues to shoot images back to earth.