Overview
- Published March 6 in Science Advances, the study combines roughly 6,000 radar measurements with 22 stellar occultations taken from October 2022 to March 2025.
- Researchers report the system’s heliocentric orbit shrank by about 360 meters, shortening its ~2.1‑year period by roughly 0.15 seconds and changing its speed by ~11.7 micrometers per second.
- Post-impact monitoring also confirmed Dimorphos’ orbital period around Didymos decreased by about 32 minutes.
- Scientists attribute part of the solar‑orbit change to ejecta that escaped the binary, carrying away momentum after the kinetic‑impactor strike.
- JPL characterizes the result as the first measurable human alteration of an asteroid’s solar orbit, with ESA’s Hera mission due in November 2026 to map the impact site and refine these measurements.