NASA said at least 37 large rocks were released from the Dimorphos when the space agency intentionally smashed into the asteroid with its half-ton DART impactor spacecraft at a rate of about 14,000 miles per hour.
NASA says the Hubble telescope's latest observations have witnessed huge boulders"escaping" from the asteroid Dimorphos. The telescope's high-sensitivity capabilities witnessed a"swarm" of"boulders" that were"shaken off" in a"free-flung" manner from the asteroid.
David Jewitt, a planetary scientist at the University of California at Los Angeles, said,"We see a cloud of boulders carrying mass and energy away from the impact target. The numbers, sizes, and shapes of the boulders are consistent with them having been knocked off the surface of Dimorphos by the impact."
Jewitt said,"This tells us for the first time what happens when you hit an asteroid and see material coming out up to the largest sizes. The boulders are some of the faintest things ever imaged inside our solar system."Scientists are still unsure how the boulders would have been lifted off the surface of the asteroid.
Researchers believe it could be possible that the matter was part of an"ejecta plume" photographed by Hubble. They believe it's also possible that a seismic wave could have been created by the impact which shook the asteroid"like hitting a bell with a hammer."Jewitt said,"If we follow the boulders in future Hubble observations, then we may have enough data to pin down the boulders' precise trajectories.
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