DART & HERA, NASA/ESA Asteroid Redirection Missions Options

[Marcin600]

Here is a video compilation of 3 LICIACube pictures: https://twitter.com/i/status/1574784696311025664

[mcaplinger]

One wonders if the large overexposure of the LICIACube images was intentional or accidental.

[Marcin600]

One wonders if the large overexposure of the LICIACube images was intentional or accidental.

Rather intentional I think as the debris of the impact were expected to be faint (?)

EDIT:
According to David Avino, CEO of Argotec (in this article - https://www.repubblica.it/tecnologia/2022/0...cube-367588148/ ) LICIACube took 620 pictures that will be downloaded in the next few days.

[StargazeInWonder]

In a way, this continues the theme of Insight's failed drilling: While mechanics in space are incredibly predictable, mechanics in heterogeneous solid bodies are incredibly unpredictable.

[cIclops]

Hubble and Webb images ...

[Quetzalcoatl]

Hi,

A question arises. What is left of Dimorphos ?

[john_s]

Despite the spectacular amount of debris, I've heard rough estimates of the total volume of ejected material being equivalent to a crater ten or so meters across, so Dimorphos is probably alive and well. We'll know soon, when mutual events are detected (or not...).

John

[scalbers]

Yes this makes sense as my rule of thumb is a crater is around 20 times the diameter of the impactor.

[StargazeInWonder]

The density and structure of Dimorphos makes it hard to compare with larger bodies with known impacts. This paper

https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/515/2/2178/6634251

estimates a density of 2.2. Chondrites have a density of about 3.5, which would make Dimorphos about one third empty space. Lunar regolith is even less dense than that, but for any significant craters, the surface soil is an insignificant fraction of the volume. In a nutshell, there's probably, in comparison to the Moon, etc., more room (literally and figuratively) for Dimorphos's regolith to compress rather than eject, which could make a crater smaller, while creating a mascon of significant size compared to the entire body of the asteroid.

[Marcin600]

Something like "mini-panoramas" of the Dimorphos surface (unfortunately not very clear) - just for fun
From this picture: https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/th...splay-final.png

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Phil Stooke]

Nice mini-panoramas! But I noticed something in the image you linked to, and here I post it with some severe image brightening off the terminator... there is some detail to be seen in reflected light. The large boulder is reflecting light to its upper right in this view, clearly revealing a smaller boulder in shadow beneath it. There are other suggested details which might be picking up some light from Didymos - I think the geometry is correct for that. It will be interesting to see the raw data for these images, which might be more suitable for this kind of processing.

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

Also... check out this wonderful family portrait by Roman Tkachenko:

https://twitter.com/_RomanTkachenko/status/...016827993288704

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

This is a better image of the night side of Dimorphos. There is lots to see. Too bad this won't work on Didymos, where there is no suitable light source.

Phil

[Marcin600]

This is a better image of the night side of Dimorphos...

Amazing work! So many new details from so few stray photons!
Dimorphos looks more elongated than I thought.
And this illuminated boulder is really huge - I estimate over 40 m long (the largest on this side of the moon).

[As for Roman's processing of pictures, I MUST say he has great talent]

[stevesliva]

I vaguely recall hearing that another presscon was coming, with more LiciaCube images, with more scientific interpretation/results. Was I imagining that? Because I can't find anything to confirm that on the internets.