Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2022

8 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2022 ASTRO PUBLISHING O ne of the im- ages regis- tered by the SOAR Telescope in Chile, shows a long tail of debris ejected by the asteroid after impact. The tail, reminiscent of a comet, extends for more than 3.1 arc-minutes, equivalent to at least 6,000 miles (about 10,000 km). [Kareta and Knight, Lowell Observatory] T he left image was obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope, using the F350LP filter in the near ultraviolet. That is the reason why the image is bluish. The right image was captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, and it is colored redly because the filter F070W was used in the red portion of the spectrum. Both images show spikes of dust and a cloud of diffuse debris around the double asteroid. Some of the spikes might be due to dif- fraction and thus may not be real fea- tures. [NASA/JWST] A SI’s LICIACube satellite ac- quired this image just after its clos- est approach to the Dimorphos as- teroid, after the Double Asteroid Redirect Test, or DART mission, made impact on September 26, 2022. In this image, it is possi- ble to observe Didymos and Di- morphos from a different perspec- tive, which can be useful to deter- mine the shapes of the asteroids. [ASI/NASA]