Overview
- The Didymos–Dimorphos system’s solar orbital period shortened by about 0.15 seconds, a shift measured in a peer‑reviewed Science Advances study.
- The change corresponds to roughly 11.7 micrometers per second in orbital speed, detectable across a ~770‑day solar orbit.
- Analyses attribute most of the impulse to impact ejecta, with an estimated 16 million kilograms of debris—about 30,000 times the spacecraft’s mass—amplifying the effect.
- Researchers combined radar tracking with 22 precisely timed stellar occultations recorded from October 2022 to March 2025 by an international network of observers.
- Alongside the previously measured 32–33 minute reduction in Dimorphos’s orbit around Didymos, the result strengthens confidence in kinetic impactors for planetary defense against non‑threatening test targets.