Cape Canaveral, Florida — The world now has amazing new photos of asteroid impact this week, the first test of such planetary defense.
NASA released photos of dramatic events taken by Hubble and Weber Space Telescope on Thursday.
Home hours later, SpaceX, together with NASA, announced that they are investigating the feasibility of sending private missions to Hubble, which may be led by billionaires, to improve the orbit of aging telescopes and extend their lifespan.
On Monday, telescopes on all seven continents watched NASA's dart spacecraft hit harmless space rocks 7 million miles (11 million kilometers) from Earth, hoping to change its orbit.
Scientists won't know the exact change until November; if one day a killer asteroid comes to us, the demonstration results are expected to inspire confidence in using the technology. "This is a view of unprecedented events," said Andy Rifkin, planetary astronomer and mission leader at Johns Hopkins University, in a statement.
All these photos will help scientists learn more about the tiny asteroid Dimorphos, which grabbed the fist and ended up with a rather large crater. The impact rushes rocks and dirt flows into space, showing bright rays in the latest photos.
According to NASA, the brightness of the dual asteroid system—the 525-foot (160-meter) Dimorphos is actually an satellite around a larger asteroid—has tripled after the impact seen in Hubble images.
In the next few weeks, Hubble and weber will continue to observe Dimos and his large companion Didimos.
The $325 million dart mission was launched last year. The spacecraft is built and managed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.
As for Hubble, NASA officials stressed Thursday that the observatory launched 32 years ago is in good condition and may have a decade of life.
Hubble's orbit is constantly decaying, but if the telescope rises from 335 miles (540 kilometers) from the current Earth to 375 miles (600 kilometers) or more, it may have more time. The six-month technical feasibility study will also consider whether any parts can be replaced, presumably by the crew.
Pennsylvania Tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman funded his SpaceX flight last year, and the winner of the race said the Hubble mission would be perfect for his planned space flight series if approved. But he didn't say whether he was volunteering.
NASA's scientific mission leader Thomas Zurbuchen told reporters: "We've been working on crazy ideas." "Frankly, that's what we should do."
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