Dramatic images show a spacecraft colliding with an asteroid – ABC17NEWS

By Ashley Strickland, CNN

The DART mission made history this week when it successfully smashed into an asteroid – and we got to see it live, from millions of miles away.

As the spacecraft for NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test neared its target Monday, images of the asteroid Dimorphos orbiting a larger space rock called Didymos streamed back to Earth at a rate of one per second.

Each frame turned out to be better than the last, and in the seconds before DART impacted Dimorphos, the small moon’s surface filled the entire frame.

Dimorphos, which had never been seen before, turned out to be egg-shaped and covered with boulders. The rocky asteroid has surprised scientists eager to study the images captured by DART before it crashed in glory.

Researchers estimate it will take about two months to determine whether DART has succeeded in altering the movement of Dimorphos in space in mankind’s first test of asteroid deflection.

The spacecraft may have caught an incredible first glimpse of an asteroid, but it’s not the only perspective of this asteroid system we’ve been lucky enough to see.

The wonder

All eyes were on Didymos and Dimorphos for a sense of the impact and aftermath of DART and the first images didn’t disappoint.

The Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope both observed the collision and spied plumes of material released from Dimorphos’ surface.

Ground-based observatories also shared how bright the asteroid system became after being attacked by DART.

But the most dramatic images were the first shared by LICIACube, the Italian mini-satellite that followed DART and watched the entire event from a safe distance. The best part? We’re going to see so much more over the next two months.

trailblazer

The Nobel Committee will shortly announce the recipients of its annual awards next week.

It is difficult to predict who will win these prestigious awards as the nominators, shortlist and selection process are hidden from the public.

In 2021, none of the Nobel Prize winners in science were women, which some critics saw as further evidence of systemic bias in scientific fields.

But there are many women who are worthy candidates like Dr. Mary-Claire King, who discovered cancer-causing genes, and Dr. Marilyn Hughes Gaston, whose work paved the way for the treatment of sickle cell disease.

Meet other women scientists on the CNN roster and learn about the revolutionary discoveries they made in vaccine research, astronomy and chemistry.

Mysteries of the Ocean

Banging fireworks, crackling bacon, and sweeping rumbles of thunder are just a few of the sounds associated with Earth’s massive glaciers as they fracture and shrink.

Scientists are bracing themselves for the surprisingly noisy nature of glaciers to learn how fast ice is melting amid the climate crisis — and to uncover mysteries of the deep.

Glacial ice can be very bubbly and hiss as it releases compressed air and bubbles that have been frozen for hundreds or even thousands of years.

Where glaciers meet the ocean can be a dangerous place for humans. Monitoring the acoustics of these dense bodies of ice from a distance is changing how researchers understand them and what we know about how their sounds affect the animals that inhabit these vanishing habitats.

discoveries

More than 100 years after the SS Mesaba sank, scientists have found her wreckage at the bottom of the Irish Sea.

On April 14, 1912, the British merchant steamer had sent a message to the RMS Titanic, but the iceberg warning never reached the giant ocean liner’s main control center that fateful night.

Just six years later, a German U-boat torpedoed the Mesaba, killing 20 people. But the exact location of the ship was previously unknown.

Researchers used sonar surveys to find the Mesaba — along with a multitude of other shipwrecks scattered over 7,500 square miles (19,425 kilometers).

through the universe

Far, far away galaxies appear to be putting on a sparkling show for the James Webb Space Telescope.

Webb discovered the “bones” of a stunning spiral galaxy 29 million light-years from Earth, a feat even more surprising when compared to Hubble’s view of the same galaxy.

Meanwhile, astronomers analyzed Webb’s first-ever image and found that it contains some of the oldest stars and galaxies in the universe – including one that looks a lot like celestial fireworks.

Surrounding the Sparkler Galaxy are glittering yellow and red dots, some of which have turned out to be clusters of old stars.

explorations

Dwell a little longer on these stories:

— The Hubble Space Telescope may be upgraded to a higher orbit to extend its lifetime, depending on the results under a new exploratory Agreement between NASA and SpaceX.

— Dogs are adorable for many reasons, and now there’s scientific evidence that sheds more light on one of their impressive scent-detection abilities.

— NASA’s Juno spacecraft flew past Jupiter’s moon Europa, capturing a stunning new view of the ice-covered sea world.

The CNN Wire
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