Hubble image archive
Hubble Photographs Boulders Flung Off Asteroid Dimorphos
This Hubble Space Telescope image of the asteroid Dimorphos was taken on December 19, 2022, nearly four months after the asteroid was impacted by NASA's DART mission (Double Asteroid Redirection Test). Hubble’s sensitivity reveals a few dozen boulders knocked off the asteroid by...
- Date
- Jan 1, 2023
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2023-008-01h5309x54rcjfmn0ezbxdjg0s
This Hubble Space Telescope image of the asteroid Dimorphos was taken on December 19, 2022, nearly four months after the asteroid was impacted by NASA's DART mission (Double Asteroid Redirection Test). Hubble’s sensitivity reveals a few dozen boulders knocked off the asteroid by the force of the collision. These are among the faintest objects Hubble has ever photographed inside the solar system. The free-flung boulders range in size from three feet to 22 feet across, based on Hubble photometry. They are drifting away from the asteroid at a little more than a half-mile per hour. The discovery yields invaluable insights into the behavior of a small asteroid when it is hit by a projectile for the purpose of altering its trajectory.
Credits
Image
NASA, ESA, David Jewitt (UCLA)
Image Processing
Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
Image Details
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Dimorphos |
| Object Description | Asteroid boulder field |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | This image was created with Hubble data from proposal: (D. Jewitt) |
| Instrument | WFC3/UVIS |
| Exposure Dates | 19 Dec 2022 |
| Filters | F350LP |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | This image is acquired by the WFC3 instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. The color results from assigning a blue hue to a monochromatic (grayscale) image. |
More Images From This Period
Source
Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
View on NASA.gov