NASA's DART spacecraft beams back first images it took 3.2 million km from Earth

In a major operational milestone, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft, has beamed back its first images after its DRACO telescopic camera opened its ‘eye’. In a recent report, NASA revealed that its engineers were initially worried about DART spacecraft's sensitive telescopic instruments as it had to endure violent vibrations of the rocket launch and extreme temperatures shift to minus 80 degrees Celsius in space. The sensitivity of the instruments can be explained by the fact that movements as small as 5 millionths of a meter could have turned serious for the telescope.

DART's first image shows the vastness of space

According to NASA, the spacecraft activated its telescope on December 7 for its first snap and took its second picture three days later when it was about 2 million miles (11 light seconds) from our planet. In the first image captured by the DRACO or the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation camera, stars can be spotted where the constellations Perseus, Aries and Taurus intersect. 

In the second picture, the DART spacecraft captured the stars in Messier 38, or the Starfish Cluster, which lies some 4,200 light-years away. While stars in the second picture are much easier to spot, both images provide an idea about the sheer vastness of the cosmos.

Detailing about the camera, NASA revealed that DRACO is a high-resolution imager that is inspired by that of the New Horizons spacecraft which took the first close-up images of the Pluto system and of a Kuiper Belt object, Arrokoth. The purpose of DRACO is to document the spacecraft as it heads closer to the Didymos asteroid system, where it will collide with Dimorphous. Interestingly, the Italy-made LICIACube satellite is also following the DART spacecraft to picture what would happen after the latter collides with Dimorphous. In short, the CubeSat will record DART's end and beam back the incident, since DRACO will be destroyed in the collision.

Image: NASA