DART’s hit nudged the Didymos–Dimorphos pair into a slightly faster solar orbit
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.
