New Videos on the Impact of the "Asteroid Collision" Mission

Amateur image processor, Jassint Roger Perez, has compiled a series of stabilized videos of the spacecraft "DART" as it collides with the asteroid "Dimorphos." "DART," which stands for "Double Asteroid Redirection Test," was an experiment to alter the trajectory of an asteroid using a spacecraft, aimed at assessing humanity's ability to deflect asteroids that might be on a collision path with Earth. Its target consists of a pair of asteroids orbiting each other: the larger is called "Didymos," and the smaller is named "Dimorphos," which orbits the larger rock approximately every 11.9 hours. For the "DART" mission to be successful, the collision had to change Dimorphos' trajectory sufficiently to alter its orbital period. The impact occurred in September 2022, in a spectacular event witnessing debris exploding from Dimorphos, as "DART" faced its demise at high speed against the surface of the rubble.