Orbital period change of Dimorphos due to the DART kinetic impact.

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 collision¹, 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.

SUBMITTER: Thomas CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10115635 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature