TLDR · SCIENCE & FUTURISTIC TECHNOLOGY

ASTEROID DEFENSE MISSION SHIFTED THE ORBIT OF MORE THAN ITS TARGET

arstechnica.com5 min read

Summary from the TLDR newsletter

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) operation in September 2022 changed the trajectory of the entire Didymos binary system and altered its orbit around the Sun. The vending-machine-sized probe crashed into the smaller asteroid at over 22,000 kilometers per hour, decreasing the along-track velocity of the entire system by roughly 11.7 micrometers per second. Some of the rock and dust created by the impact gave the asteroids a push roughly equal to the initial impact of the spacecraft itself, further changing the asteroids' orbits. The final verification of the DART mission's consequences will come in late 2026 when the ESA's Hera spacecraft arrives at the Didymos system.