First images of Dart spacecraft hitting asteroid show bigger impact than expected

The James Webb and Hubble telescopes showed pictures from Nasa’s mission to test Earth’s ability to defend itself against space rocks

A vast cloud of dust is seen expanding out of the asteroid Dimorphos after it was hit by the spaceship

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Three views of the Dart spacecraft impact on the asteroid Dimorphos as seen by (clockwise from left) a forward camera on Dart, the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope. Images: Nasa via AP

Published: 7:48am, 30 Sep 2022Updated: 1:31pm, 30 Sep 2022

The James Webb and Hubble telescopes on Thursday revealed their first images of a spacecraft deliberately smashing into an asteroid, as astronomers indicated that the impact looks to have been much greater than expected.

The world’s telescopes turned their gaze towards the space rock Dimorphos earlier this week for a historic test of Earth’s ability to defend itself against a potential life-threatening asteroid in the future.

Astronomers rejoiced as Nasa’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (Dart) impactor slammed into its pyramid-sized, rugby ball-shaped target 11 million km (6.8 million miles) from Earth on Monday night.

Images taken by Earth-bound telescopes showed a vast cloud of dust expanding out of Dimorphos – and its big brother Didymos which it orbits – after the spaceship hit.

While those images showed matter spraying out over thousands of kilometres, the James Webb and Hubble images “zoom in much closer”, said Alan Fitzsimmons, an astronomer at Queen’s University Belfast involved in observations with the Atlas project.

James Webb and Hubble can offer a view “within just a few kilometres of the asteroids and you can really clearly see how the material is flying out from that explosive impact by DART”, Fitzsimmons said. “It really is quite spectacular.”