It was pushed closer to Didymos after the Double Asteroid Redirect Test mission slammed into the asteroid Dimorphos.
There is a person by the name ofLeah Crane.
After NASA's DART mission made impact with the Dimorphos asteroid, there was a stream of ejected debris.
NASA/APL.
The mission was a success. The small asteroid was shortening its circle around Didymos after it crashed into Dimorphos.
DART hit Dimorphos on September 26th, sending a huge amount of material off the asteroid. Didymos was circled by Dimorphos once every 11 hours and 55 minutes before it was hit. According to NASA officials, Dimorphos is a little bit closer to Didymos now than it was a few months ago.
The minimum time needed to change the orbital period was 73 seconds. The final result is on the high end of what the simulations predicted, so it's a good one.
Four of the most powerful telescopes on Earth have been watching Dimorphos since the smash-up. The light from the pair of asteroids dipped as Dimorphos passed between Didymos and Earth. The same period was measured by radar instruments.
The first measurement of the mass of the asteroid will help us understand Dimorphos, as well as the asteroid itself. The data will show how DART impacted the asteroid.
During the press conference, NASA's Tom Statler said that the recoil from the ejected debris was a significant contributor to the overall push given to the asteroid. Figuring out the mechanics of the collision is a crucial part of DART's ultimate goal, which was to test a method for defusing hazardous asteroids.
Statler said that asteroids are not all the same. We can use this test as an anchor point for our physics calculations and simulations to see how different kinds of impacts in different situations should behave. The more we know about this collision, the better we can predict how other people will act.
The orbital period of Dimorphos around Didymos has changed by 4%, according to Nancy Chabot. It could work if you wanted to do it in the future, but you need to do it years in advance.
If we could push the rock off the path so that it wouldn't hit us, we would have a better chance of avoiding a collision.
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