NASA’s DART spacecraft changed an asteroid’s orbit around...

What’s Happening

Real talk: A 2022 NASA mission changed the orbit of the asteroid Dimorphos around its companion.

New data shows their joint orbit around the sun also changed. News Planetary Science NASA’s DART spacecraft changed an asteroid’s orbit around the sun Studying this asteroid could help protect Earth from future asteroid strikes NASA’s DART spacecraft took this picture of asteroid Didymos (bottom left) and its smaller companion Dimorphos about 2. (and honestly, same)

5 minutes before deliberately crashing into Dimorphos.

The Details

Scientists have now shown that the impact changed the asteroid duo’s orbit around the sun. NASA/Johns Hopkins APL By Lisa Grossman at 2:00 pm this: via email (Opens in new window) Email on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit on X (Opens in new window) X Print (Opens in new window) Print A spacecraft slowed the orbit of a pair of asteroids around the sun 10 micrometers per second — the first time human activity has altered the orbit of a celestial object, researchers report March 6 in Science Advances .

The experiment could have implications for protecting Earth from future asteroid strikes. NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, intentionally crashed a spacecraft into the small asteroid Dimorphos in 2022.

Why This Matters

The goal was to change Dimorphos’ orbit around its larger sibling, Didymos. Within a month, researchers showed that the impact shortened Dimorphos’ 12-hour orbit by 32 minutes . For our We summarize the week’s scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

The scientific community tends to find developments like this significant.

Key Takeaways

• Most of that change came from the impact itself.
• Some of it came from flying impact debris, which gave Dimorphos a little kick in the opposite direction of its motion.
• Those rocky runaways took some momentum away from the duo and changed their joint motion around the sun.

The Bottom Line

Some of the rocks knocked off of Dimorphos fled the vicinity completely , escaping the gravitational influence of the Dimorphos–Didymos pair, says planetary defense researcher Rahil Makadia of the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign. Those rocky runaways took some momentum away from the duo and changed their joint motion around the sun.

What’s your take on this whole situation?