NASA: DART mission altered asteroid's orbit by 32 minutes

Shawn Knight

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In brief: It's been two weeks since NASA slammed a 1,260-pound spacecraft into a 530-foot-wide asteroid called Dimorphos at 14,000 mph in an effort to alter its orbit. We now know the results of the planetary defense demonstration.

Data analyzed by the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) team over the last couple of weeks confirms the impact worked as intended. Before DART slammed into the asteroid, it took Dimorphos 11 hours and 55 minutes to orbit its larger parent asteroid, Didymos. It now takes Dimorphos 11 hours and 23 minutes to orbit Didymos, meaning the crash slowed its orbit by approximately 32 minutes.

NASA said before impact that a change of 73 seconds or more would be considered successful. Needless to say, DART smashed that benchmark.

The impact itself isn't the only variable that contributed to the altered orbit. When DART collided with the asteroid, it displaced tons of rock that launched into space. Think of it like untying a balloon – the air from inside rushes out and propels the balloon forward. The same thing happened with Dimorphos – the recoil from the rock ejecta enhanced DART's push.

More information on the asteroid's physical properties including characteristics of its surface and how strong or weak it is will be needed to fully understand the effect of the recoil, we're told.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said we all have a responsibility to protect our home planet as it is the only one we have. "This is a watershed moment for planetary defense and all of humanity, demonstrating commitment from NASA's exceptional team and partners from around the world," Nelson added.

Lori Glaze, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, said that as new data comes in, astronomers will be able to better assess whether a mission like DART could be used in the future to protect Earth from a collision with an asteroid.

NASA livestreamed the impact for all to witness. Observatories from around the world and in space also watched from different angles. NASA's own Webb and Hubble telescopes even captured the event.

The asteroids are seven million miles away from Earth and posed no threat to humanity before impact. The same can be said post-test.

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"Before DART slammed into the asteroid, it took Dimorphos 11 hours and 55 minutes to orbit its larger parent asteroid, Didymos. It now takes Dimorphos 11 hours and 23 minutes to orbit Didymos, meaning the crash slowed its orbit by approximately 32 minutes."

Shouldn't that be SPED UP, since it takes less time to orbit?
 
I used to be a CG artist for space projects and I'm getting increasingly shocked by the fact that it's 99%CG and not much real footage. It now looks to me like bad propaganda trying to sell us some extraordinary accomplishment. At least if the CG, the goals and the story were realistic, it could be entertaining. The news has become a cheap stage.
 
"Before DART slammed into the asteroid, it took Dimorphos 11 hours and 55 minutes to orbit its larger parent asteroid, Didymos. It now takes Dimorphos 11 hours and 23 minutes to orbit Didymos, meaning the crash slowed its orbit by approximately 32 minutes."

Shouldn't that be SPED UP, since it takes less time to orbit?

Orbital mechanics are a bit strange. Lower orbits have less energy; slowing yourself down by accelerating backwards will lower your orbit, which will increase the speed of your orbit and reduce the period of the orbit.

Higher orbits have more energy; speeding up will raise your orbit, which will allow down the speed of your orbit and increase the period of the orbit.

So you can say that they slowed the object, reducing its Orbital period and increasing its average speed. It just really depends. I recommend playing around with KSP to get a better feel for this.
 
I used to be a CG artist for space projects and I'm getting increasingly shocked by the fact that it's 99%CG and not much real footage. It now looks to me like bad propaganda trying to sell us some extraordinary accomplishment. At least if the CG, the goals and the story were realistic, it could be entertaining. The news has become a cheap stage.
It's odd that everything NASA releases is CGI and the public eats it up. 👀
 
Mission failed. The spacecraft missed the carefully calculated spot on the asteroid that would change its trajectory to the desired path. As a result, the asteroid will not hit Beijing. Repeat, the asteroid will not hit Beijing. Back to MatLab.
 
Great stuff ..... could they make one that will push Russia off the planet? In 32 seconds? LOL
 
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