The Hubble and Webb telescopes captured DART smashing into an asteroid this week – the first time they’ve simultaneously observed the same celestial target.
Earlier this week NASA successfully crashed its DART spacecraft into an asteroid around seven million miles from Earth.
The mission was a test to see if the force of such an impact can alter the course of an asteroid’s flight. If it can — and we we’re waiting for the results to come in — then we can use the technology for planetary defense if we ever spot a hazardous asteroid heading straight for Earth.
A video stream from DART transmitted astonishingly clear images of the spacecraft’s final moments before crashing into the Dimorphos asteroid at 14,000 mph.
On Thursday, we learned that two of NASA’s most prominent space telescopes, Webb and Hubble, also had their cameras trained on the big event.
It turns out this was the first time Webb and Hubble were used to simultaneously observe the same celestial target, and both captured the moment of impact.
