The spacecraft was traveling at 14,000 mph and had a narrow window of view of its companion asteroid Didymos. Boulders soon filled the screen before the signal disappeared.
The DART mission was a $330 million mission designed to determine whether it was possible to deflect an asteroid's orbit after impacting it.
Asteroid is so far away that the impact will change its orbit, which is the primary goal of this mission. However, it is still unknown how much of a change the collision will make
To observe the collision, scientists and astronomers pointed a number of telescopes at the asteroid.
The James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Telescope aimed at the asteroid and observed it. In addition to the DART spacecraft,
LICIACube, a tiny Italian spacecraft, also observed the collision. The LICIACube spacecraft also sent a camera called LICIACube to document the event.
DART is an asteroid mission that launched in November 2021. It was named after the asteroid Dimorphos, which is orbiting the larger asteroid Didymos.
DART's camera spotted Dimorphos for the first time an hour before the impact. Its navigation system then shifted its gaze towards Dimorphos.