Subj : Daily APOD Report
To   : All
From : Alan Ianson
Date : Wed Oct 05 2022 00:16:16

                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                               2022 October 5

                     Expanding Plume from DART's Impact
   Video Credit: Les Makes Observatory, J. Berthier, F. Vachier, A. Klotz,
     P. Thierry, T. Santana-Ros, ESA NEOCC, D. F++hring, E. Petrescu, M.
                                   Micheli

   Explanation: What happens if you crash a spaceship into an asteroid? In
   the case of NASA's DART spaceship and the small asteroid Dimorphos, as
   happened last week, you get quite a plume. The goal of the planned
   impact was planetary protection -- to show that the path of an asteroid
   can be slightly altered, so that, if done right, a big space rock will
   miss the Earth. The high brightness of the plume, though, was
   unexpected by many, and what it means remains a topic of research. One
   possibility is that 170-meter wide Dimorphos is primarily a rubble pile
   asteroid and the collision dispersed some of the rubble in the pile.
   The featured time-lapse video covers about 20 minutes and was taken
   from the Les Makes Observatory on France's Reunion Island, off the
   southeast coast of southern Africa. One of many Earth-based
   observatories following the impact, the initial dot is primarily
   Dimorphos's larger companion: asteroid Didymos. Most recently, images
   show that the Didymos - Dimorphos system has developed comet-like
   tails.

         DART Impact on Dimorphos: Notable images submitted to APOD
                       Tomorrow's picture: open space
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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