In:
Nature, Springer Science and Business Media LLC, Vol. 616, No. 7957 ( 2023-04-20), p. 448-451
Abstract:
The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft successfully performed the first test of a kinetic impactor for asteroid deflection by impacting Dimorphos, the secondary of near-Earth binary asteroid (65803) Didymos, and changing the orbital period of Dimorphos. A change in orbital period of approximately 7 min was expected if the incident momentum from the DART spacecraft was directly transferred to the asteroid target in a perfectly inelastic collision 1 , but studies of the probable impact conditions and asteroid properties indicated that a considerable momentum enhancement ( β ) was possible 2,3 . In the years before impact, we used lightcurve observations to accurately determine the pre-impact orbit parameters of Dimorphos with respect to Didymos 4–6 . Here we report the change in the orbital period of Dimorphos as a result of the DART kinetic impact to be −33.0 ± 1.0 (3 σ ) min. Using new Earth-based lightcurve and radar observations, two independent approaches determined identical values for the change in the orbital period. This large orbit period change suggests that ejecta contributed a substantial amount of momentum to the asteroid beyond what the DART spacecraft carried.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0028-0836
,
1476-4687
DOI:
10.1038/s41586-023-05805-2
Language:
English
Publisher:
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Publication Date:
2023
detail.hit.zdb_id:
120714-3
detail.hit.zdb_id:
1413423-8
SSG:
11
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