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5d ago

Study Confirms DART Nudged Asteroid Pair’s Orbit Around the Sun

A new Science Advances analysis reports a tiny heliocentric slowdown detected with years of precision tracking, underscoring kinetic impactors as a viable defense.

This image of asteroids Didymos, left, and Dimorphos was captured by NASA’s DART mission a few seconds before the spacecraft smashed into Dimorphos on Sept. 26th, 2022. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL
Pictured here is the binary asteroid system that scientists smashed a spacecraft into. Dimorphos, left, and Didymos, right, are respectively about 160 meters in diameter and 780 meters in diameter.

Overview

  • Researchers report the first measured human-caused change to a celestial body’s path around the Sun in the Didymos–Dimorphos system.
  • The system’s orbital speed shifted by about 11.7 microns per second, translating to roughly 0.15 seconds over its 770-day solar orbit.
  • The measurement combined radar, long-baseline astrometry and 22 precisely timed stellar occultations recorded between 2022 and 2025, many by volunteer observers.
  • Ejecta from the impact effectively doubled the momentum transfer, and Dimorphos’s orbit around Didymos shortened by about 32–33 minutes.
  • NASA and ESA say the system poses no threat to Earth, and the results refine planning for future deflection efforts alongside detection initiatives such as NEO Surveyor.