The Trace Left Behind the First ‘Bombed’ Meteorite Shared

NASA successfully carried out its first test yesterday as part of the DART project, which it has been working on for years to protect the planet from meteorites. The agency deliberately hit the asteroid called Dimorphos with the vehicle it sent into space. The goal was to find out if the asteroid could be changed in orbit by a collision.

Images of the moment and after the collision were later shared by Hubble and James Webb. While the meteorite had to be observed for a while for the result, an important development was recorded today. Astronomers, who followed the meteorite with the SOAR telescope in Chile, shared that the trace left behind by the meteorite after the collision exceeded 10 thousand kilometers.

The trace left behind by the meteorite:

The above image, taken two days after the spacecraft hit the asteroid, showed that the asteroid left a trail of 10,000 kilometers behind it. This trail was made up of dust and other materials blasted into space by the collision. Scientists expect this trace to get longer and disperse, and at some point be too thin to be observed.

The behavior of the 160-metre-wide asteroid after the collision will be closely watched over the coming weeks and months. Data from this mission will be critical to protecting humanity against potential future dangers.

Meteorite could be history’s first artificial comet

Comets are meteorites that leave traces of thousands of kilometers behind by the evaporation of water and ice when they approach the stars while wandering in a certain orbit or straying in space.

The meteorite that NASA hit last week did not naturally create a trace in this way, but the impact of the collision left behind thousands of kilometers of traces, just like a comet. This brings to mind that the meteorite in question may be the first artificial comet in history. However, scientists have not yet made an official statement on this subject.