Asteroid Dimorphos has 10,000-kilometer-long tail of particles after Dart crash

0
67
Asteroid Dimorphos has 10,000-kilometer-long tail of particles after Dart crash

Two days after the influence, astronomers at Lowell Observatory and the US Naval Academy took this picture of Dimorphos utilizing the 4.1-meter Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescope at NOIRLab’s Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. It depicts a large mud path that’s pushed in a single path by the Sun’s radiation stress, as is the case with a comet’s tail.

“It is amazing that we were able to clearly capture the structure and its aftermath in the days following the impact,” Teddy Caretta mentioned in a press assertion. Kareta is an astronomer at Lowell Observatory in Arizona. Using Dimorphos’ distance from Earth on the time of remark, astronomers calculate that the tail is 10,000 kilometers lengthy.

“Now begins the next phase of work for the DART team as they analyze their data and observations by our team and other observers around the world who took part in studying this exciting phenomenon. We look forward to the coming weeks and months.” We are planning to make use of SOAR to observe ejecta. The mixture of SOAR and AEON is precisely what we’d like for environment friendly follow-up of such evolving occasions,” Matthew Knight mentioned in a press assertion. Astronomer on the US Naval Academy.

Such observations will assist scientists perceive extra concerning the nature of dimorphos, how a lot materials was ejected by chance, how briskly it was ejected and the scale of the particles within the mud cloud. Will assist. Scientists will analyze this data to raised perceive the aftermath of the influence and whether or not it was profitable in modifying the asteroid’s orbit.


With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS

Leave a reply

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here