Free Astronomy Magazine May-June 2023

42 MAY-JUNE 2023 ASTRO PUBLISHING First VLT results in the aftermath of the impact on Dimorphos by ESO - Juan Carlos Muñoz Mateos O n 26 September 2022 the DART spacecraft collided with the asteroid Dimorphos in a controlled test of our asteroid de- flection capabilities. The impact took place 11 million kilometres away from Earth, close enough to be ob- served in detail with many tele- scopes. All four 8.2-metre telescopes of ESO’s VLT in Chile observed the af- termath of the impact, and the first results of these VLT observations have been published in two papers. “Asteroids are some of the most basic relics of what all the planets and moons in our Solar System were T his artist’s illustration shows the ejection of a cloud of debris after NASA’s DART spacecraft collided with the asteroid Dimorphos. The image was created with the help of the close-up photographs of Dimor- phos that the DRACO camera on the DART spacecraft took right before the impact. The DART spacecraft col- lided with Dimorphos at a speed of over 6 kilometres per second (about 22,000 kilometres per hour). After the impact several telescopes ob- served the evolution of the cloud of debris, including ESO’s Very Large Telescope. [ESO/M. Kornmesser]