DART’s hit nudged the Didymos–Dimorphos pair into a slightly faster solar orbit
TL;DR Summary
NASA’s DART spacecraft’s impact on Dimorphos altered the binary asteroid system’s motion around the Sun: their orbital period around the Sun shortened by about 0.15 seconds (from ~770 days) due to momentum transfer and debris ejection (~16 million kg). The measured change in orbital speed was ~11.7 microns per second, marking the first time a human-made object subtly altered a celestial body’s solar orbit; follow-up Hera observations will study the aftermath.
- NASA crashed a spacecraft into a space rock, accelerating two asteroids’ orbit around the sun CNN
- In a first, NASA changed an asteroid’s orbit around the sun—by accident National Geographic
- NASA successfully kicks asteroid off course in Earth defence test France 24
- NASA’s DART Mission Changed Orbit of Asteroid Didymos Around Sun NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) (.gov)
- NASA warns that over 15,000 'city-killing' asteroids are orbiting Earth undetected Earth.com
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