Astronomers used astronomical telescopes to watch space and found that NASA’s DART asteroid left a trail of more than 9,656 kilometers in the recent impact test.
According to foreign media reports, astronomers Teddy Kareta and Matthew Knight took an image using the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. It shows DART and its twin asteroid Dimorphos collided, leaving a trail of dust and other debris more than 6,000 miles long.
According to the researchers, the main reason for the phenomenon is that the sun’s radiation pressure pushes the material away, and the trajectory will only continue to expand and extend into the dust stream until it can’t be identified from ordinary particles floating in the solar system. Explosion structure and extent can still be clearly captured for days
Scientists will also use data collected by SOAR, the Astronomical Event Observation Network and other observers to learn more about the collision event and the planet Dimorphos, and the data will be analyzed later to help astronomers better understand the ejecta from the impact The number and nature of asteroids, and how this could alter the orbits of asteroids, thereby protecting Earth and its inhabitants.
Source: engadget
—
unwire.hk Create pages: https://mewe.com/p/unwirehk