NASA's Dart Mission Changed Orbit of Asteroid Around Sun

11 hours ago

NASA's DART spacecraft impact on asteroid Dimorphos in 2022 altered the orbit of both Dimorphos and its companion Didymos around the Sun.
The impact changed the binary system's 770-day orbital period around the Sun by a fraction of a second, marking the first human-made alteration of a celestial body's solar orbit.
The momentum enhancement factor from the impact was about two, meaning debris loss doubled the spacecraft's effect.
Dimorphos' orbital period around Didymos shortened by 33 minutes, and the binary system's solar orbit period changed by 0.15 seconds.
The orbital speed change was 11.7 microns per second, demonstrating how small changes can prevent future Earth impacts.
NASA's NEO Surveyor mission aims to detect hard-to-find near-Earth objects for planetary defense.
Researchers used stellar occultations and ground-based observations to precisely measure the asteroids' orbits and densities.
Dimorphos is a 'rubble pile' asteroid, slightly less dense than thought, likely formed from debris shed by Didymos.
DART was humanity's first mission to intentionally move a celestial object, managed by Johns Hopkins APL for NASA.

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