5576

Is that real imaging from the impact?

5577

Honestly not sure! Could be simulated?

5578

Best I could do. Am I crazy, or are we actually seeing the colors of the moon? Io, the volcanic moon, is red. Europa, the ice moon, is bluish. Then there’s Calisto and Ganymede.
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Long exposures don’t work because it’s moving relatively too quick.

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You can see how much movement there is even in a 1-second exposure
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5579

So how much is supposed the asteroid to change trajectories? I guess they have calculated everything before, knowing weights and velocities, it will be a bit of newtonian math.

5580

Depends on the exact composition of the asteroid (precise weight is not known). Expectation is for it’s orbit around a larger asteroid to be reduced from 1h55m to 1h 48m,

5581

Of course, when it turns out the so-called asteroid is actually Xrxxgo’th from Beta Calliopis IV and we just punched it in the nuts, we’re going to be sorry.

5582

Sure, but he’ll be sorry first.

5583

Wikipedia has a good video made from the images DRACO took during the approach:

5584

I took a video with the 400mm lens. I was definitely seeing colors in the still shots. Really need a 2x extender for the lens in this case. (This is a screenshot on my phone of the downsampled 720p video I sent via text last night, so the full video looks better).

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I might try picking up an extender and using an ND filter tonight.

5585

(They meant 11:45 A.M., those social media guys aren’t exactly rocket scientists.)

Hope, as they claimed, everything’s fine, just fine down there.

5586

The full eclipse a few years ago, it suddenly snapped into place that the moon was a goddamned rock in the sky.

5587

The probe had a twitter account.

5588

When I was a middle schooler in the early 80s there was some huge alignment that wouldn’t happen again for another XXXXX years, so I went out with my Edmund Astroscan telescope and looked. It was abnormally bright out, but the show was completely stolen by seeing Jupiter and the four big moons in a neat row. I shan’t forget it.

5589
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5591

Google ‘nasa dart’ for a treat.

5592

Watched this live and gave me some chills. I do feel like this is opening a new chapter of human history. As others have said, the first successful test of an Earth planetary defense system. Cool to think of how fast we are moving into the future. After a few decades where space innovation stalled, there has been a massive surge in new space vehicles that we have the privilege of watching live.

5593

Well, we don’t know if it’s successful yet. All we know is that it hit (and I suppose that the asteroid didn’t entirely fragment).

5594

google “nasa dart mission”

5595

While technically true, the principle (hit a very small target with kinetic projectile) was a success.

Once you can reliably do that, the energy imparting and trajectory shifting becomes less a matter of ‘can we’ and ‘how big of a rocket and payload do we need’.