Wounded Asteroid Dimorphos' Tail Persists!
Taken by Bill Williams on October 23, 2022 @
Chiefland Astro Village, Florida, USA
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"It feels a bit like the future, doesn't it?" a friend exclaimed having learned of the planned impact of NASA's spacecraft DART into an asteroid! I agree! And for those who don't believe this
actually happened, check out the gas or debris tail this crash unexpectedly created as captured with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). I decided to check it out for myself this weekend. So I took 26 one-minute exposures with my 14.5-inch RCOS telescope at the Chiefland (Florida) Astro Village. I almost fell off my chair as the images of the asteroid with beautiful tail downloaded as I chased this object racing through Monoceros at 3.5 arcseconds per minute among the stars! It was moving so fast that I had to limit my exposures to one minute. But when I stacked 23 of the exposures to enhance signal to noise, I believe I can even detect a bifurcation (split) in the distal tail which was detected by the HST weeks ago!
For the first time in history, the human race has altered the appearance of a celestial object ....... and you can see it from your own backyard! Feels a bit like the future, doesn't it??!!
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