[U: PSA | Covid] ATLAS Telescope At Sutherland, South Africa: Dimorphos -- In A Celestial Cloud Plume, From DART Strike...

While small, this gif at right may be the best full field of view movie of the event, I've yet run across.

Kudos -- to the team inside the 'scope shack, in Sutherland.

. . .“The ATLAS telescope system was well positioned to observe the impact from Earth, and we were fortunate to have excellent weather at the ATLAS telescope at Sutherland, South Africa,” said IfA Astronomer Larry Denneau, an ATLAS co-principal investigator.

“Our robotic operation and automatic data processing were able to produce measurements minutes after each observation, giving scientists immediate feedback about the observable effects of the impact. . . .”

“The DART mission struck the little moon of Didymos named Dimorphos hard enough to reduce its orbital period from 12 hours by about 5 minutes. Therefore the eclipses we can observe from Earth will occur earlier and earlier, and after a week or two we will have a very good measurement of how much Dimorphos recoiled after being struck by DART,” said John Tonry, IfA professor and ATLAS principal investigator. “Given this new information, it will be possible to plan a mission to divert a dangerous asteroid: how early must it be struck, how massive must the spacecraft be, how fast must it be traveling. . . .”

Now you know. [And, as a side-light/PSA: each of my grown sons were at separate celebrations in the last two weeks, and both -- out on the West Coast have tested positive, despite being vaxxed and boosted. My daughter who also was at one of the celebrations. . . has remained negative (but she had caught it, and was pretty ill for a bit, in Columbia -- just a year ago, so she has additional likely immunity to variants).

Both are showing only mild symptoms, as is pretty typical for strong athletes who avoid any and all even semi-toxic life-style choices. Crazy world.]

Mask up in crowded spaces, people -- I still do, despite three Moderna and one Pfizer jabs, already. OTOH, I’ve never even had a flu, in 20 years — one or two runny noses — but never been sick a single day, in now almost 30 years. [So, I may be naturally immune.]

You just don't know about the people within six feet of you, at any given moment. And no current vaccine can cover all possible variants and mutations. Damn.

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