Sharjah24: Sharjah Optical Observatory at Sharjah Academy for Astronomy, Space Sciences, and Technology (SAASST) of the University of Sharjah (UoS) managed to detect the impact of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft crush into the asteroid Dimorphos, which is NASA’s first planetary defense test to prevent a potential meteorite collision with Earth, as there are over 15,000 near-Earth asteroids discovered in space.
It is noteworthy that this collision was observed by the best astronomical observatories around the world including SAASST, who used various advanced astronomical instruments for observation, where they recorded an increase in the asteroid’s brightness from magnitude 15 to magnitude 12.5 during the crush. NASA’s DART mission was launched in November 2021 where DART moved towards the asteroid Didymos at the relative velocity of 22,000km/h. The DART probe was designed to observe and hit the asteroid Dimorphos which has a diameter of 160 meters.
The Sharjah Optical Observatory team consists of Prof. Hamid M.K. Al Naimiy, Professor of Space Astrophysics and Chancellor of the University of Sharjah, Prof. Mashhoor Al Wardat, Professor at the Department of Applied Physics and Astronomy, UoS, Mr. Mohamed Talafha, Astronomical Observer, SAASST, and Ammar Abdulla, Assistant Researcher, SAASST.
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