Dart Hits a Bullseye

Hoe did that get there?

Someone must have dropped a dime on them.

Seeing that closeup image made me wonder if Dimorphos is a rubble pile and not solid. The Atlas images at the moment of impact suggest some rubble and dust were blown off. Dimorphos clearly has a low escape velocity so much of that debris cloud has left this asteroid. This unknown quantity of scattered matter will complicate calculations of the kinematics. Measurements of Dimorphos orbital period around Didymos will confirm how effective was this impact.

..."LICIACube saw and has been characterizing the composition of the ejecta plume of debris expelled from Dimorphos by the impact, but it will takes days, or even weeks, for the dust to quite literally settle and for Dimorphos to stabilize into its new orbit around Didymos. By then, LICIACube will be gone, headed off into deep space."...

..." Hera mission, which will launch in 2024 and reach Dimorphos, and the larger asteroid it orbits Didymos, in 2026 to view the aftermath of DART's sacrifice."...

https://www.space.com/dart-asteroid-impact-what-happens-next

This looks like it is a solid core with rubble on top. The energy from the collision seems to scatter the rubble leaving the core, which doesn't seem to be much smaller. The rubble scattering in all directions carrying away momentum complicates the problem of figuring out the change in momentum of the core after the collision.

https://twitter.com/fallingstarIfA/status/1574583529731670021?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1574583529731670021%7Ctwgr%5E7ad6e76c1f1ffe50b30703f178d1bd8b774586a2%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnet.com%2Fscience%2Fspace%2Fnasa-telescope-captures-epic-collision-between-dart-probe-and-asteroid-dimorphos%2F

..."The ATLAS telescopes in Hawaii were focused on Didymos and Dimorphos during DART's collision on Monday. The probe was traveling at over 14,000 miles per hour when it hit the smaller of the two: Dimorphos, an asteroid that's the size of Rome's Colosseum and that orbits Didymos.

The time of impact was 4:14 p.m. PT. The moment shows a brightening and a plume of light erupting around the crash site as DART ends with a bang.

It was a bang heard 'round the world. Not literally, of course. There was no sound -- but plenty of viewers watched on NASA's livestream as the probe's cameras delivered its death dive second by second. The DART mission is a test to see if we can knock space rocks off course, should they ever be headed our way.

We'll have to wait for a few more telescope images -- and a 2024 mission -- to find out exactly how much impact DART had."...

https://www.cnet.com/science/space/nasa-telescope-captures-epic-collision-between-dart-probe-and-asteroid-dimorphos/

..."On the left is Didymos, the large asteroid that Dimorphos orbits. On the right is Dimorphos and all the rubble DART's impact created."...

This pic was snapped by the little cube stat after the collision....

https://www.cnet.com/science/space/nasa-dart-companion-delivers-first-eerie-images-of-asteroid-crash-site/

Interestingly, if you hit it head-on, it ends up, on average, traveling faster.

(In this example, collision at 12 o'clock reduces speed to 0.9 original value.)

https://games.aarp.org/games/atari-asteroids

I'll save you!!!

Wait,,,!! ...this is only a test..

This is how you get a bullseye every time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHTizZ_XcUM (Pasted in as my link button has disappeared).

See this thread

My final workaround (probably not worth it for your case above) is to post a comment then edit it within the 15 minute time out: the editing icons, and, ability to paste pictures, then return.

Tying to see if that works.....

Yes it does, link here.

That plume from the atlas video caught me. When can we see the hole?

..."The DART spacecraft launched a tiny, Italian-made cubesat in the week before impact.

LICIACube’s job is to follow the spacecraft towards Dimorphos and capture the aftermath of the impact with its on-board cameras dubbed ‘LUKE’ and ‘LEIA’.

Sweeping through shortly after the crash, these cameras should see a plume of asteroid debris emanating from the surface. DART’s team also expect to find a crater measuring 10 to 20 meters in diameter.

Ernst expects, given the incredible low gravity of the asteroid, the ejecta could still be “coming out” from the impact site as the cubesat completes its pass.

DART mission systems engineer Dr Elena Adams also suggests there may be discolouration of the impact site owing to the evaporation of new fuel sources on board the craft’s experimental ion engine system."...

https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/what-do-we-know-after-darts-crash-into-asteroid-dimorphos/

"The same DART spacecraft impact can result in very different craters on Dimorphos depending on what the asteroid material is like. The crater on the left is the result if Dimorphos is composed of strong rocky material, while the much larger crater shown on the right could occur if the Dimorphos is made up of much weaker rubble-like material. Image provided by Mike Owen/LLNL."

https://www.llnl.gov/news/llnl-led-paper-reveals-spacecraft-geometry-effects-impact-simulations-nasas-dart-mission

..."NASA's successful asteroid impact test created a beautiful mess, apparently. As the Associated Press reports, astronomers using the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope in Chile have captured an image revealing that DART's collision with Dimorphos left a trail of dust and other debris measuring over 6,000 miles long."...

https://www.engadget.com/nasa-dart-dimorphos-impact-trail-length-210414070.html