NASA has been working for years to protect the planet from meteorites. As part of the DART project It successfully completed its first test yesterday. The agency deliberately hit the asteroid called Dimorphos with the vehicle that sent it into space. The goal was to find out if the asteroid could be turned into orbit by a collision.

Footage of the moment and after the collision were later shared by Hubble and James Webb. While the meteorite had to be observed for a while for the result, an important development was recorded today. based in Chile SOAR telescope The astronomers tracking the meteorite with more than 10 thousand kilometers shared.

The trail left by the meteorite:

The above image, taken two days after the spacecraft hit the asteroid, is behind the meteor. That you left a trail of 10,000 kilometers showed. This path consisted of dust and other material blown into space by the collision. Scientists expect that this trail will lengthen and spread, and at some point it will be too thin to be observed.

The behavior of the 160 meter wide meteorite after the collision, for weeks and months will be closely monitored. Data from this mission will be critical to protecting humanity from potential future dangers.

Meteorite could be history’s first artificial comet

When comets approach the stars as they orbit or wander in space, they are left behind by the evaporation of water and ice on them. thousands of miles are meteorites.

The meteorite that NASA smashed into last week didn’t create a trail in this way, of course, but the impact of the collision left trails for thousands of miles, just like a comet. This is the asteroid in question. first artificial comet in history It makes me think it could. However, scientists have not yet made an official statement on the subject.