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<\/a>Credits: NASA\/ESA\/STScI\/Hubble<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u201cAll of us have a responsibility to protect our home planet. After all, it\u2019s the only one we have,\u201d said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. \u201cThis mission shows that NASA is trying to be ready for whatever the universe throws at us. NASA has proven we are serious as a defender of the planet. This is a watershed moment for planetary defense and all of humanity, demonstrating commitment from NASA’s exceptional team and partners from around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prior to DART\u2019s impact, it took Dimorphos 11 hours and 55 minutes to orbit its larger parent asteroid, Didymos. Since DART\u2019s intentional collision with Dimorphos on Sept. 26, astronomers have been using telescopes on Earth to measure how much that time has changed. Now, the investigation team has confirmed the spacecraft\u2019s impact altered Dimorphos\u2019 orbit around Didymos by 32 minutes, shortening the 11 hour and 55-minute orbit to 11 hours and 23 minutes. This measurement has a margin of uncertainty of approximately plus or minus 2 minutes.<\/p>\n
Before its encounter, NASA had defined a minimum successful orbit period change of Dimorphos as change of 73 seconds or more. This early data show DART surpassed this minimum benchmark by more than 25 times.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis result is one important step toward understanding the full effect of DART\u2019s impact with its target asteroid\u201d said Lori Glaze, director of NASA\u2019s Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. \u201cAs new data come in each day, astronomers will be able to better assess whether, and how, a mission like DART could be used in the future to help protect Earth from a collision with an asteroid if we ever discover one headed our way.\u201d<\/p>\n
The investigation team is still acquiring data with ground-based observatories around the world \u2013 as well as with radar facilities at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory\u2019s Goldstone planetary radar in California and the National Science Foundation\u2019s Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia. They are updating the period measurement with frequent observations to improve its precision.<\/p>\n
Focus now is shifting toward measuring the efficiency of momentum transfer from DART\u2019s roughly 14,000-mile (22,530-kilometer) per hour collision with its target. This includes further analysis of the “ejecta\u201d \u2013 the many tons of asteroidal rock displaced and launched into space by the impact. The recoil from this blast of debris substantially enhanced DART\u2019s push against Dimorphos \u2013 a little like a jet of air streaming out of a balloon sends the balloon in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n
To successfully understand the effect of the recoil from the ejecta, more information on of the asteroid\u2019s physical properties, such as the characteristics of its surface, and how strong or weak it is, is needed. These issues are still being investigated.<\/p>\n
\u201cDART has given us some fascinating data about both asteroid properties and the effectiveness of a kinetic impactor as a planetary defense technology,\u201d said Nancy Chabot, the DART coordination lead from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. \u201cThe DART team is continuing to work on this rich dataset to fully understand this first planetary defense test of asteroid deflection.\u201d<\/p>\n
For this analysis, astronomers will continue to study imagery of Dimorphos from DART\u2019s terminal approach and from the Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids (LICIACube), provided by the Italian Space Agency, to approximate the asteroid\u2019s mass and shape. Roughly four years from now, the European Space Agency\u2019s Hera project is also planned to conduct detailed surveys of both Dimorphos and Didymos, with a particular focus on the crater left by DART\u2019s collision and a precise measurement of Dimorphos\u2019 mass.<\/p>\n
Johns Hopkins APL built and operated the DART spacecraft and manages the DART mission for NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office as a project of the agency’s Planetary Missions Program Office. Telescopic facilities contributing to the observations used by the DART team to determine this result include: Goldstone, Green Bank Observatory, Swope Telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, the Danish Telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, and the Las Cumbres Observatory global telescope network facilities in Chile and in South Africa.<\/p>\n
Neither Dimorphos nor Didymos poses any hazard to Earth before or after DART\u2019s controlled collision with Dimorphos.<\/p>\n
For more information about the DART mission, visit:<\/p>\n