Sharjah Optical Observatory (SOO)at Sharjah AcademyofAstronomy, 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 crash into the asteroid Dimorphos, which is NASA’s first planetary defense test to prevent a potential meteorite collision with Earth, as there areat least 27,000known near-Earth asteroids in space.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.

It is noteworthy that this collision was observed by the best astronomical observatories around the world alongside SOO, whichused various advanced astronomical instruments for observation and recorded an increase in the asteroid brightness from magnitude 15 to magnitude 12.5 during the crash. The Sharjah Optical Observatory team consists of Prof. Hamid M.K. Al-Naimiy, Professor of 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, Astronomer, SAASST and Ammar Abdulla, Research Assistant, SAASST.