The DART probe, sent by NASA, was able to hit the asteroid Dimorphos, located 11 million kilometers from Earth, on Tuesday night, and two iconic space telescopes captured the moment.

Click here to enlarge the photo

For the first time, mankind has tried to change the trajectory of a celestial object in space, and now this mission is a test for the distant future, when a large asteroid will be able to collide with Earth. The probe was destroyed by the impact, but from now on we will learn a lot and many interesting images will be published.

• Here you can see the impact recorded by Webb and Hubble

From Webb’s and Hubble’s observations, we know, among other things, what the surface of Dimorphos is like, how much material was ejected after the collision, and at what speed. We will find out whether large solid pieces of debris or very small fragments were ejected, and by combining all the information, we will be able to find out how effective NASA’s mission was in changing the trajectory of the asteroid.

• Why the DART mission, with which NASA will try to divert an asteroid from its path, is spectacular and important

The James Webb telescope spent five hours observing and took ten pictures. Hubble took pictures before the collision and then 15 minutes after the brutal moment.

Dimorphos poses no threat to Earth, but served only as a celestial test object for this mission. The asteroid is 163 meters wide, and the goal of the mission is to see if it will change its speed and trajectory in any way after impact, and if so, how.

Dimorphos orbits the much larger asteroid Didymos, which is 790 meters in diameter. The two make up a binary system, and such a system is ideal for this kind of test, because the impact should change Dimorphos’ orbit around Didymos by 1%, enough for everything to be detected by Earth-based observatories.