--- title: "Incredible New Videos Show NASA Smashing Into Asteroid" description: "An amateur astronomer has compiled new footage from NASA's asteroid-smashing mission to show just how incredible that collision really was." date: "2023-11-11" modified: "2023-11-11" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-dart-asteroid-smash-videos" categories: - "NASA" - "Space" tags: - "asteroids" - "dart" - "NASA" - "the digest" --- # Incredible New Videos Show NASA Smashing Into Asteroid ![An amateur astronomer has compiled new footage from NASA's asteroid-smashing mission to show just how incredible that collision really was.]() *\Image: Italian Space Agency/Jacint Roger Perez\* ## Super Smash Bros An amateur astronomer has compiled new footage from NASA's groundbreaking asteroid-smashing mission to show just how incredible the collision really was. As [*ScienceAlert* reports](), Barcelona-based citizen scientist [Jacint Roger Perez]() processed the videos, which he [posted on Twitter]() in GIF form, from newly-released raw images from the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission that successfully deflected an asteroid called Dimorphos last September. Alongside the NASA spaceship used to ram into Dimorphos, the Italian Space Agency sent a tiny cubesat called LICIAcube — and it was new footage from LICIAcube's two cameras that Perez used to compile his stunning views of what happened [just before](), [during](), and [after the DART craft]() slammed into the asteroid. https://twitter.com/landru79/status/1720528631779266852 The DART impact, *ScienceAlert* explains, ended up having a way larger, more visible, and longer-lasting effect than scientists were expecting. As [NASA reported last December](), more than two *million* pounds of material ejected from the itty bitty Dimorphos asteroid, which was only 525 feet across and orbited its larger brother Didymos every 11 hours and 55 minutes. https://twitter.com/landru79/status/1720828117038534676 ## Dead on Impact After the impact, a [whopping 6,214-mile tail of debris]() trailed the asteroid for months on end — and although scientists were looking to only alter the orbit of the "moonlet" asteroid by about seven minutes, the impact of NASA's refrigeration-sized spacecraft was diminished by a whopping 33 minutes. Interestingly enough, multiple teams of scientists hypothesized earlier this year that Dimorphos was displaced from its orbit so significantly not just because of the DART impact, but also because of the massive debris tail the collision caused. As [*ScienceAlert* reported]() back in March, the journal *Nature* published a series of articles about the Dimorphos debris, with three of them finding that the asteroid's long [post-smashing tai]()l seemed to [increase its momentum]() more than [anyone could have expected](). This mission's purpose wasn't just for the love of the game, but rather to see [whether we could divert any killer asteroids]() screaming towards Earth to avert the kind of [world-shattering disaster]() that made dinosaurs extinct. Obviously, it was way more successful than scientists anticipated — and it made for some pretty stunning and badass imagery of a space-age wrecking rally, just as a bonus. **More on DART:** *[Something Weird is Going on With the Asteroid NASA Smashed]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()