TY - JOUR

T1 - Orbital period change of Dimorphos due to the DART kinetic impact

AU - Thomas, Cristina A.

AU - Naidu, Shantanu P.

AU - Scheirich, Peter

AU - Moskovitz, Nicholas A.

AU - Pravec, Petr

AU - Chesley, Steven R.

AU - Rivkin, Andrew S.

AU - Osip, David J.

AU - Lister, Tim A.

AU - Benner, Lance A.M.

AU - Brozović, Marina

AU - Contreras, Carlos

AU - Morrell, Nidia

AU - Rożek, Agata

AU - Kušnirák, Peter

AU - Hornoch, Kamil

AU - Mages, Declan

AU - Taylor, Patrick A.

AU - Seymour, Andrew D.

AU - Snodgrass, Colin

AU - Jørgensen, Uffe G.

AU - Dominik, Martin

AU - Skiff, Brian

AU - Polakis, Tom

AU - Knight, Matthew M.

AU - Farnham, Tony L.

AU - Giorgini, Jon D.

AU - Rush, Brian

AU - Bellerose, Julie

AU - Salas, Pedro

AU - Armentrout, William P.

AU - Watts, Galen

AU - Busch, Michael W.

AU - Chatelain, Joseph

AU - Gomez, Edward

AU - Greenstreet, Sarah

AU - Phillips, Liz

AU - Bonavita, Mariangela

AU - Burgdorf, Martin J.

AU - Khalouei, Elahe

AU - Longa-Peña, Penélope

AU - Rabus, Markus

AU - Sajadian, Sedighe

AU - Chabot, Nancy L.

AU - Cheng, Andrew F.

AU - Ryan, William H.

AU - Ryan, Eileen V.

AU - Holt, Carrie E.

AU - Agrusa, Harrison F.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s).

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - 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 collision1, but studies of the probable impact conditions and asteroid properties indicated that a considerable momentum enhancement (β) was possible2,3. In the years before impact, we used lightcurve observations to accurately determine the pre-impact orbit parameters of Dimorphos with respect to Didymos4–6. 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 (3σ) 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.

AB - 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 collision1, but studies of the probable impact conditions and asteroid properties indicated that a considerable momentum enhancement (β) was possible2,3. In the years before impact, we used lightcurve observations to accurately determine the pre-impact orbit parameters of Dimorphos with respect to Didymos4–6. 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 (3σ) 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.

U2 - 10.1038/s41586-023-05805-2

DO - 10.1038/s41586-023-05805-2

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 36858072

AN - SCOPUS:85152472438

VL - 616

SP - 448

EP - 451

JO - Nature Genetics

JF - Nature Genetics

SN - 1061-4036

IS - 7957

ER -