Orbital period change of Dimorphos due to the DART kinetic impact

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  • Cristina A. Thomas
  • Shantanu P. Naidu
  • Peter Scheirich
  • Nicholas A. Moskovitz
  • Petr Pravec
  • Steven R. Chesley
  • Andrew S. Rivkin
  • David J. Osip
  • Tim A. Lister
  • Lance A.M. Benner
  • Marina Brozović
  • Carlos Contreras
  • Nidia Morrell
  • Agata Rożek
  • Peter Kušnirák
  • Kamil Hornoch
  • Declan Mages
  • Patrick A. Taylor
  • Andrew D. Seymour
  • Colin Snodgrass
  • Martin Dominik
  • Brian Skiff
  • Tom Polakis
  • Matthew M. Knight
  • Tony L. Farnham
  • Jon D. Giorgini
  • Brian Rush
  • Julie Bellerose
  • Pedro Salas
  • William P. Armentrout
  • Galen Watts
  • Michael W. Busch
  • Joseph Chatelain
  • Edward Gomez
  • Sarah Greenstreet
  • Liz Phillips
  • Mariangela Bonavita
  • Martin J. Burgdorf
  • Elahe Khalouei
  • Penélope Longa-Peña
  • Markus Rabus
  • Sedighe Sajadian
  • Nancy L. Chabot
  • Andrew F. Cheng
  • William H. Ryan
  • Eileen V. Ryan
  • Carrie E. Holt
  • Harrison F. Agrusa

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft successfully performed the first test of a kinetic impactor for asteroid deflection by impacting Dimorphos, the secondary of near-Earth binary asteroid (65803) Didymos, and changing the orbital period of Dimorphos. A change in orbital period of approximately 7 min was expected if the incident momentum from the DART spacecraft was directly transferred to the asteroid target in a perfectly inelastic collision1, but studies of the probable impact conditions and asteroid properties indicated that a considerable momentum enhancement (β) was possible2,3. In the years before impact, we used lightcurve observations to accurately determine the pre-impact orbit parameters of Dimorphos with respect to Didymos4–6. Here we report the change in the orbital period of Dimorphos as a result of the DART kinetic impact to be −33.0 ± 1.0 (3σ) min. Using new Earth-based lightcurve and radar observations, two independent approaches determined identical values for the change in the orbital period. This large orbit period change suggests that ejecta contributed a substantial amount of momentum to the asteroid beyond what the DART spacecraft carried.

Original languageEnglish
JournalNature
Volume616
Issue number7957
Pages (from-to)448-451
Number of pages4
ISSN0028-0836
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

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