See how Nasa crashed DART spacecraft into asteroid Dimorphos

The Nasa mission is humanity's first attempt to alter the motion of a celestial body

Last updated: September 27, 2022 | 13:07

Compiled by Christian Borbon, Senior Web Editor

2 MIN READ

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The finale to the suicide spaceflight, humanity's first attempt to alter the motion of an asteroid or any celestial body, played out in a NASA webcast from the mission operations center outside Washington, D.C., 10 months after DART was launched.

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A television at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, captures the final images from the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) as it approaches asteroid Dimorphos (R), past asteroid Didymos (L)

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The last image to contain a complete view of asteroid Didymos (top left) and its moonlet, Dimorphos, about 2.5 minutes before the impact of NASA’s DART spacecraft, taken by the on board DRACO imager from a distance of 920 kilometers.

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In this image made from a NASA livestream, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft approaches asteroid Dimorphos, center, as larger asteroid Didymos fades away from view.

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Asteroid moonlet Dimorphos as seen by the DART spacecraft 11 seconds before impact in this image taken by DART’s on board DRACO imager from a distance of 68 kilometers.

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A television at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, captures the final images from the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) as it smashes into the asteroid Dimorphos

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Dimorphos just before the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) made impact with the asteroid, as watched by the team (bottom L) at DART headquarters in Laurel, Maryland.

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The last complete image of asteroid moonlet Dimorphos, taken by the DRACO imager on NASA's DART mission 12 kilometers from the asteroid and 2 seconds before impact, showing a patch of the asteroid that is 31 meters across.

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