Astronomers analyze first results from ESO telescopes on the aftermath of DART's asteroid impact AandA_journal AAS_Office
as a dark annulus around the central condensation, which is an artefact and not a real feature of the ejecta. To define the reflectance of the system pre-impact and to avoid this effect, we used spectra extracted over the full PSF of the object from observations on September 26, rather than using colour maps. In some parts of Fig., a check-like pattern can be seen in the colour maps.
We examined the reflectance maps to study the evolution of the ejecta and tail properties over time. In the hours following the impact, on September 27, the initial ejecta cloud is clearly visible in the colour maps with a reflectivity of the order of 0 − 4%/100 nm. This is significantly bluer than the system before impact, for which we measure a colour of 12%/100 nm. This is also illustrated in Fig.
Changes or differences in the reflectance slope of dust particles are commonly observed in the dust surrounding comets and can have several causes, the two main ones being a change in the composition of the particles and a change in their size distribution . In the case of the particles seen after the DART impact, since the particles ejected come from the same parent body, we assume that the main cause of the colour difference observed is a difference in the particle sizes.
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