The Dart probe hit the asteroid, the first images have arrived – Science & Technology

The first images
The small asteroid Dimorphos wrapped in a cloud of debris, from which, like rays, trails of dust, made luminous by the illumination of the Sun, depart: this is what can be seen in one of the first spectacular images, of the 620 taken by the Italian mini-satellite LiciaCube, immediately after the impact of NASA’s Dart probe on the small asteroid, which occurred during the night. LiciaCube is a satellite managed and coordinated by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and built by the Argotec company of Turin. The images were presented in the press conference organized at Argotec and are the very first to arrive on Earth.

The enthusiasm is skyrocketing “, Simone Pirrotta, head of the LiciaCube mission for the Italian Space Agency (ASI), told ANSA. Managed and coordinated by ASI and implemented by the Argotec company, LiciaCube is the first all-Italian mission active in deep space, 13 million kilometers from Earth.

The acquisition of the images “is the most important return expected from our mission,” said Pirrotta, who is following the mission from the Control Center in Turin. It is in fact “the clear sign that the trajectory was almost exactly as expected, that the aiming system worked well and that the cameras acquired the expected photos”, she added.
“It is also the result of the work of a good team: for five years we have heard from each other almost every day”, he observed referring to the working group that participated in the Italian mission and of which, with Asi and Argotec, the National Institute belong of Astrophysics, Milan Polytechnic, University of Bologna, Parthenope University of Naples and the ‘Nello Carrara’ Institute of Applied Physics of the National Research Council (Cnr-Ifac).

IMPACT SUCCESS! Watch from #DARTMIssion‘s DRACO Camera, as the vending machine-sized spacecraft successfully collides with asteroid Dimorphos, which is the size of a football stadium and poses no threat to Earth. pic.twitter.com/7bXipPkjWD

– NASA (@NASA) September 26, 2022

The impact
The probe Dart NASA hit the asteroid Dimorphos to divert its trajectory: it was experienced like this, 13 million kilometers from Eartha technology that in the future could allow protect our planet from the possible impact of a asteroid threatening. Like a cosmic photojournalist, the Italian minisatellite LiciaCube will collect the first data on the event.

As the Dart (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) probe approached its target, its camera sent more and more detailed images to Earth of the irregular and rugged surface of the small celestial body, 13 million kilometers away from Earth. With each close-up image the emotion increased in the NASA Control Center, up to the huge applause that greeted the impact.

In that instant the little satellite LiciaCube, managed and coordinated by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and built by the Argotec company, was located less than a thousand kilometers from the asteroid and immediately after the collision entered the scene as a cosmic photojournalist to film the point where it occurred the impact. It was “a spectacular impact!”, Simone Pirrotta, head of the LiciaCube mission for ASI, who followed the mission from the Turin Control Center, told ANSA. “The SmartNav pointing technology of the Dart probe worked perfectly. Here in Turin we have followed with emotion the end of the NASA mission, with the awareness that in the meantime our little reporter was documenting a historical moment: the first time that the genre human changes the orbital state of a celestial body, “he added referring to the satellite LiciaCube.

“In the 4 minutes before the impact, Liciacube started tracking the asteroid guided no longer by the pre-loaded trajectories on board, but by the Imaging System, the steering and attitude control system based on real-time images”, he Pirrotta added. The first window of communication with the Earth is scheduled for 2:15: “in the first hour the status of the satellite and the register of what has happened will be checked. Subsequently – said the expert – the images will begin to be downloaded”.

A new season begins
It is the beginning of a new season of missions dedicated to planetary defense: after Dart, in 2024 the European Space Agency (ESA) plans to launch Hera, the mission that will have to examine and measure the crater left by the impact of Dart and collect data on the composition and mass of the asteroid. With Dart and LiciaCube, Hera is part of the international collaboration Aida (Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment), which will bring together the data collected in the three missions.

Graphic representation of the asteroid Dimorphos, with a diameter of 160 meters, in comparison with the Colosseum (source: ESA-Science Office)

The system formed by the asteroid Didymos, around which another asteroid, Dimorphos rotates (source: ESA)

The NASA direct

Live from the Virtual Telescope

The small asteroid Dimorphos wrapped in a cloud of debris, from which, like rays, trails of dust, made luminous by the illumination of the Sun, depart: this is what can be seen in one of the first spectacular images, of the 620 taken by the Italian mini-satellite LiciaCube, immediately after the impact of NASA’s Dart probe on the small asteroid, which occurred during the night. LiciaCube is a satellite managed and coordinated by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and built by the Argotec company of Turin. The images were presented in the press conference organized at Argotec and are the very first to arrive on Earth.