There will be a lot of attention on asteroid Dimorphos tonight as NASA attempts to change the asteroid's position around Didymos. We don't know if the first-of-its-kind experiment worked. All eyes will continue to watch Dimorphos for several weeks after the impact.
The Didymos-Dimorphos asteroid looks like a small dot of light in the sky. As the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos moves around the Didymos, the dot gradually becomes brighter and dimmer. Calculating how much Dimorphos' orbit will change after the DART impact will be done from the dips in brightness. The asteroid is expected to be pushed closer to Didymos, speeding up its time in the sky. Nobody knows when this will be observable.
Ground-based telescopes are important to DART's success.
Tom Statler, the DART program scientist at NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office, said in a European Space Agency's news conference that if you damaged your wristwatch, it would start running fast. After a few weeks, you will begin to notice that it's not keeping the correct time.
DART mission scientists don't have a good idea of how big of a change the impact will be. They don't know much about Dimorphos. The effectiveness of the impact will depend on the asteroid's density and internal structure, which are not yet known. DART needs to shave 73 seconds off of Dimorphos' orbital period in order to be considered a success.
When Dimorphos goes in front of Didymos, the telescopes will watch the timing of the eclipses. We would see that happen within a few days or weeks. If a month went by, we didn't have a clear idea of the change. We are not able to say exactly.
The material ejected by the DART impact will be observed and measured by ground telescopes. Astronomers might be able to determine some of the properties of Dimorphos by using this material.
The more material ejected from the asteroid, the greater the amount of material available to reflect the sun's light. It's the first time something like this has been tested and it's hard to say how much material will be released. The current estimates suggest it will increase in brightness by around a magnitude, but in the most extreme scenarios this could be as much as four.
The moment of impact can only be seen in the southern and eastern parts of Africa, the eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula and in southeast Asia. Over the next weeks and days, hundreds of professional and amateur telescopes all over the world will aim at Didymos, including the two most powerful space-based observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope.
You can follow Tereza Pultarova on social networking sites. We encourage you to follow us on social networking sites.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
