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National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) Hubble Space Telescope captured a series of photos of asteroid Dimorphos when it was deliberately hit by a 1,200-pound NASA spacecraft called DART on September 26, 2022, according to their statement.

Hubble‘s time-lapse movie of the aftermath of DART’s collision reveals surprising and remarkable, hour-by-hour changes as dust and chunks of debris were flung into space, NASA said in their statement.

Smashing head on into the asteroid at 13,000 miles per hour, the DART impactor blasted over 1,000 tons of dust and rock off of the asteroid.

The Hubble movie offers invaluable new clues into how the debris was dispersed into a complex pattern in the days following the impact, NASA said.

This was over a volume of space much larger than could be recorded by the LICIACube cubesat, which flew past the binary asteroid minutes after DART’s impact, they said.

The primary objective of DART, which stands for Double Asteroid Redirection Test, was to test our ability to alter the asteroid’s trajectory as it orbits its larger companion asteroid, Didymos, the agency said.

Though neither Didymos nor Dimorphos poses any threat to Earth, data from the mission will help inform researchers how to potentially divert an asteroid’s path away from Earth, if ever necessary, the statement said.

The DART experiment also provided fresh insights into planetary collisions that may have been common in the early solar system.

“The DART impact happened in a binary asteroid system. We’ve never witnessed an object collide with an asteroid in a binary asteroid system before in real time, and it’s really surprising.

“I think it’s fantastic. Too much stuff is going on here. It’s going to take some time to figure out,” said Jian-Yang Li of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona.

The study, led by Li along with 63 other DART team members, was published on March 1 in the journal Nature.

The movie shows three overlapping stages of the impact aftermath: the formation of an ejecta cone, the spiral swirl of debris caught up along the asteroid’s orbit about its companion asteroid, and the tail swept behind the asteroid by the pressure of sunlight, resembling a windsock caught in a breeze, the statement said.

The statement described that the Hubble movie starts at 1.3 hours before impact.

In this view both Didymos and Dimorphos are within the central bright spot; even Hubble can’t resolve the two asteroids separately.

The thin, straight spikes projecting away from the center (and seen in later images) are artifacts of Hubble’s optics.

The first post-impact snapshot is 2 hours after the event.

Debris flies away from the asteroid, moving with a range of speeds faster than four miles per hour, fast enough to escape the asteroid’s gravitational pull, so it does not fall back onto the asteroid, the statement said.

The ejecta forms a largely hollow cone with long, stringy filaments.

At about 17 hours after the impact the debris pattern entered a second stage.

The dynamic interaction within the binary system starts to distort the cone shape of the ejecta pattern, the statement described.

The most prominent structures are rotating, pinwheel-shaped features. The pinwheel is tied to the gravitational pull of the companion asteroid, Didymos.

“This is really unique for this particular incident,” said Li. “When I first saw these images, I couldn’t believe these features. I thought maybe the image was smeared or something.” Hubble next captures the debris being swept back into a comet-like tail by the pressure of sunlight on the tiny dust particles, the statement said.

This stretches out into a debris train where the lightest particles travel the fastest and farthest from the asteroid. The mystery is compounded later when Hubble records the tail splitting in two for a few days, the statement said.

A multitude of other telescopes on Earth and in space, including NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and Lucy spacecraft, also observed the DART impact and its outcomes.

This Hubble movie is part of a suite of new studies published in the journal Nature about the DART mission.


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Meteorite From Outer Solar System Challenges Planet Formation Timeline in Early Solar System

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Meteorite From Outer Solar System Challenges Planet Formation Timeline in Early Solar System

A minuscule meteorite seems to be rewriting the history of our solar system. The 50-gram Northwest Africa 12264 has brought a new understanding of when and how rocky worlds came together. Inner planets such as Earth and Mars were thought to have formed earlier than their more distant siblings, given temperatures and composition. But a new study of this meteorite, which originates from beyond the asteroid belt, suggests that the birth of planets throughout the solar system occurred tens of millions of years earlier than previously believed, narrowing the gap in time between the solar system’s inner and outer surfaces.

Outer Solar System Meteorite Reveals Rocky Planets Likely Formed Simultaneously Across the Galaxy

As per a study led by Dr Ben Rider-Stokes of The Open University and published in Communications Earth & Environment, the meteorite’s chemical makeup offers critical evidence. Its chromium and oxygen isotope ratios place its origin in the outer solar system. Most strikingly, lead isotope dating determined its age to be about 4.564 billion years, almost identical to basalt samples from the inner solar system that represent early planetary crusts.

These findings directly challenge the previous assumption that rocky planets beyond Jupiter formed two to three million years later due to their water-rich composition. Ice and water were thought to slow differentiation, the internal layering of planetary bodies. But this meteorite, with its outer solar birth and inner solar age, points to a far more synchronised process of rocky planet formation.

Scientists note that the discovery is also consistent with observations of exoplanetary systems. Based on this and past observations of disks of dust and gas around other stars, the evidence of planetesimals forming quickly and over large orbital separations adds to the argument that early solar system evolution may have been more universal than thought.

As trivial as the time difference might be in the context of a universe, the question is huge. A new timeline of planet formation is not only a retelling of Earth’s history but may also help determine how astronomers think about how planets form in the galaxy more generally, providing new hints about where and how in the galaxy Earth-like planets could take shape.

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NASA’s Hubble and Webb Discover Bursting Star Formation in Small Magellanic Cloud



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NASA’s Hubble and Webb Discover Bursting Star Formation in Small Magellanic Cloud

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NASA’s Hubble and Webb Discover Bursting Star Formation in Small Magellanic Cloud

Scientists from NASA observed the bursting expansion of gas, stars, and dust from the glittering territory of the dual star clusters using Hubble and Webb space telescopes. NGC 460 and NGC 456 stay in the Small Magellanic Cloud, which are open clusters, with dwarf galaxies and orbit the Milky Way. These clusters are part of the extensive star complex clusters and nebulae that are most likely to be linked to each other. Stars are born upon the collapse of clouds.

Hubble and Webb Reveal Explosive Star Births in Small Magellanic Cloud

As per a report from NASA, the open clusters are from anywhere from a few dozen to many young stars, which are loosely bound by gravity. The images captured by Hubble capture the glowing and ionised gas, which comes from stellar radiation and blows bubbles in the form of gas and dust, which is blue in colour. The infrared of Webb shows the clumps and delicate filament-like structures and dust, which is red in colour.

NGC 460 and NGC 456: A Window into Early Universe Star Formation

Hubble shows the images of dust in the form of a silhouette against the blocking light; however, in the images of Webb, the dust is warmed by starlight and glows with infrared waves. The blend of gas and dust between the stars of the universe is called the interstellar medium. The region holding these clusters is known as the N83-84-85 complex and is home to multiple, rare O-type stars. These are hot and extremely massive stars that burn hydrogen like the Sun.

Such a state mimics the condition in the early universe; therefore, the Small Magellanic Cloud gives a nearby lab to find out the theories regarding star formation and the interstellar medium of the cosmos’s early stage.

With these observations, the researchers tend to study the gas flow from convergence to divergence, which helps in refining the difference between the Small Magellanic Cloud and its dwarf galaxy, and the Large Magellanic Cloud. Further, it helps in knowing the interstellar medium and gravitational interactions between the galaxies.

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New Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Could Reveal Secrets of Distant Worlds

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New Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Could Reveal Secrets of Distant Worlds

The entry of a third known object into our solar system has been confirmed on July 1, 2025 by the astronomers. This object is named 3I/ATLAS, where 3I stands for “Third Interstellar”, having a highly hyperbolic (eccentricity ≈ 6.2) orbit, confirming it is not bound to the Sun but is a true interstellar visitor. Only two such visitors, 1I/ʻOumuamua (2017) and 2I/Borisov (2019), had been seen before. Notably, 3I/ATLAS appears to be the largest and brightest interstellar wanderer yet discovered.

Comparison with previous interstellars

According to NASA, astronomers from the ATLAS survey first spotted the object on July 1, 2025, using a telescope in Chile. It immediately drew attention for its unusual motion. Shortly after discovery, observers saw a faint coma and tail, leading to its classification as comet C/2025 N1 (ATLAS).

This comet-like appearance is shared with 2I/Borisov, the second interstellar visitor. Global observatories now track 3I/ATLAS. It poses no threat but offers a rare opportunity to study alien material. Since 1I/ʻOumuamua was observed only as it was leaving the solar system, it was difficult for astronomers to get enough data on it to confirm its exact nature — hence the crazy theories about it being an alien spaceship — though it’s almost certainly an asteroid or a comet.

Size and Significance

3I/ATLAS is much larger and brighter than earlier interstellar visitors. It is about 15 kilometers (km) [9 miles] in diameter, with huge uncertainty, compared to 100m for 1I/’Oumuamua and less than 1km for 2I/Borisov. This brightness and size makes it a a better target for study. Astronomers are planning to analyze its light for chemical signatures from its home system to get clues about the formation of distant planetary systems.

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