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Astronomers watched in awe as binary asteroid Didymos brightened up immediately after the impact of NASA's DART mission on Monday (Sept. 26).

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Last night at 23:14 UTC, NASA's DART spacecraft successfully struck asteroid Dimorphos, the 160-metre moonlet orbiting around the larger Didymos asteroid. About 38 seconds later, the time it took for the light to arrive at Earth, people all over the world saw the abrupt end of the live stream from the spacecraft, signalling that the impact had happened successfully – DART was no more. 

Astronomers on a small slice of our planet’s surface, extending from southern and eastern Africa to the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Peninsula, could actually watch it live with their telescopes. Among those were a half dozen stations joined together for a dedicated observing campaign organised by ESA’s Planetary Defence Office and coordinated by the team of observers of the Agency’s Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre (NEOCC). As usual, when such a timely astronomical event happens, not all stations were successful in their observations: clouds, technical problems and other issues always affect real-life observations.   

However, a few of ESA’s collaborating stations could immediately report a successful direct confirmation of DART’s impact. Among them was the team of the Les Makes observatory, on the French island of La Reunion in the Indian Ocean. The sequence of images they provided in real time was impressive: the asteroid immediately started brightening upon impact, and within a few seconds it was already noticeably brighter. Within less than a minute a cloud of ejected material became visible and could be followed while it drifted eastwards and slowly dissipated. 

This video is from observations by the Les Makes Observatory in Le Reunion and shows in a few seconds what took place in under half an hour. 

“Something like this has never been done before, and we weren’t entirely sure what to expect. It was an emotional moment for us as the footage came in,” explains Marco Micheli, Astronomer at ESA’s NEOCC. 

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DART may have completed its journey, but the work is only just starting for scientists as they set about learning how much the asteroid Dimorphos was deflected by its impact.

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The night of 26 September 2022 will make space history - as the moment when NASA's DART spacecraft impacts the Dimorphos asteroid in an attempt to divert its course - humankind's first planetary defence test. Next, in 2024, ESA launches its Hera spacecraft to investigate the post-impact asteroid. In fact, Hera is not one spacecraft but three: it carries with it ESA's first deep-space CubeSats to make extra observations of its target.

With the Hera mission, ESA is assuming even greater responsibility for protecting our planet and ensuring that Europe plays a leading role in the common effort to tackle asteroid risks.

In this video, Ian Carnelli, Hera mission manager, and members of the Hera team, reflect on the DART impact and introduce Hera and its Milani and Juventas CubeSats.

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These spectacular images feature the spiral galaxy IC 5332, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (left) and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope (right). The images display the powerful capabilities that both world-leading space telescopes provide, especially when combining their data.

The Webb image shows the spiral galaxy in unprecedented detail thanks to observations from its Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI). IC 5332 lies over 29 million light-years from Earth, and has a diameter of roughly 66 000 light-years, making it a little larger than the Milky Way. It is notable for being almost perfectly face-on with respect to Earth, allowing us to admire the symmetrical sweep of its spiral arms.

MIRI is the only Webb instrument that is sensitive to the mid-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum (specifically in the 5 µm – 28 µm wavelength range); Webb’s other instruments all operate in the near-infrared. Contributed under both ESA and NASA leadership, MIRI is the first instrument that delivers mid-infrared images that are sharp enough to be easily matched to Hubble’s view at shorter wavelengths.

One of MIRI’s most remarkable features is that it operates 33 °C below the rest of the observatory at the frosty temperature of –266 °C. That means that MIRI operates in an environment only 7 °C warmer than absolute zero, which is the lowest possible temperature according to the laws of thermodynamics. MIRI requires this frigid environment in order for its highly specialised detectors to function correctly, and it has a dedicated active cooling system to ensure that its detectors are kept at the correct temperature.

It is worth noting just how challenging it is to obtain observations in the mid-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. The mid-infrared is incredibly difficult to observe from Earth as much of it is absorbed by Earth’s atmosphere, and heat from Earth’s atmosphere further complicates things. Hubble could not observe the mid-infrared region as its mirrors were not cool enough, meaning that infrared radiation from the mirrors themselves would have dominated any attempted observations. The extra effort made to ensure that MIRI’s detectors had the freezing environment necessary to operate properly is evident in this stunning image.

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The long-range navigation camera on NASA’s DART spacecraft captured this view of asteroid Dimorphos moments before impact. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL

A $330 million NASA mission completed what amounts to an interplanetary game of darts Monday night with an on-target collision with a space rock nearly 7 million miles from Earth, testing a technique that scientists could use in the future to protect our home planet from a threatening asteroid.

Scientists were elated with the result Monday night, heralding as a turning point in humanity’s ability to protect Earth from threats from the sky. But it will take up to two months to precisely measure how much the impact of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, spacecraft knocked its target asteroid off of its orbit.

“Congratulations! Boy, the DART team, you really did this one very well. … I believe it’s going to teach us how to one day protect our own planet from an incoming asteroid,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “So thank you to this international team. We are showing that planetary defense is a global endeavor, and it is very possible to save our planet.”

The DART spacecraft was the size of a vending machine — with a mass less than 1,300 pounds, or 600 kilograms — before it slammed into asteroid Dimorphos at a velocity of some 14,700 mph (6.6 kilometers per second). The collision destroyed the spacecraft and was expected to leave a crater on the surface of Dimorphos, an asteroid the size of a sports stadium that orbits a larger half-mile-side companion named Didymos.

The two asteroids, called a binary pair, are located about 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) from each other. Scientists will use telescopes on Earth to track the motion of Dimorphos around Didymos, and measure how much the kinetic energy imparted by the DART impact changed the orbit.

Live coverage of pre-launch preparations for NASA’s Artemis 1 mission. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.

It's rare for spacecraft mission personnel to cheer at the words "loss of signal," but tonight, that's exactly what happened.

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