Momentum Transfer from the DART Mission Kinetic Impact on Asteroid Dimorphos
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- Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD (United States)
- University of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)
- University of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
- University of Bern (Switzerland)
- Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Roma (Italy)
- Space Science Data Center (ASI), Rome (Italy)
- Italian Space Agency-ASI, Rome (Italy); Institute of Space Astrophysics and Planetology, Rome (Italy)
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Washington, DC (United States)
- California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
- Auburn University, AL (United States)
- Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ (United States)
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)
- Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX (United States)
- Imperial College, London (United Kingdom)
- Polytechnic University of Milan (Italy)
- Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI (United States)
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Berlin (Germany)
- Universite Cote d'Azur, Nice (France)
- University of Toulouse (France)
- Institute of Space Sciences (CSIC-IEEC), Barcelona (Spain)
- DLR Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin (Germany)
- Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Berlin (Germany); Freie University, Berlin (Germany)
- Italian Space Agency-ASI, Rome (Italy)
- University of Naples ‘Parthenope’, Naples (Italy); Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology (IAPS), Naples (Italy)
- National Institute for Astrophysics, Astrophysical Observatory of Arcetri, Firenze (Italy)
- National Institute for Astrophysics, Astronomical Observatory at Padova, Padova (Italy)
- National Institute for Astrophysics, Astronomical Observatory at Capodimonte, Naples (Italy)
- University of Bologna, Forli (Italy)
- INAF, Astronomical Observatory at Trieste, Trieste (Italy)
- University of Naples ‘Parthenope’, Naples (Italy)
- IFAC, CNR, Florence (Italy)
The NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission performed a kinetic impact on asteroid Dimorphos, the satellite of the binary asteroid (65803) Didymos, at 23:14 UTC on 26 September 2022 as a planetary defence test. DART was the first hypervelocity impact experiment on an asteroid at size and velocity scales relevant to planetary defence, intended to validate kinetic impact as a means of asteroid deflection. Here we report a determination of the momentum transferred to an asteroid by kinetic impact. On the basis of the change in the binary orbit period, we find an instantaneous reduction in Dimorphos’s along-track orbital velocity component of 2.70 ± 0.10 mm s-1, indicating enhanced momentum transfer due to recoil from ejecta streams produced by the impact. For a Dimorphos bulk density range of 1,500 to 3,300 kg m-3, we find that the expected value of the momentum enhancement factor, β, ranges between 2.2 and 4.9, depending on the mass of Dimorphos. If Dimorphos and Didymos are assumed to have equal densities of 2,400 kg m-3, β=3.61$$^{+0.19}_{-0.25}$$(1σ) . These β values indicate that substantially more momentum was transferred to Dimorphos from the escaping impact ejecta than was incident with DART. Therefore, the DART kinetic impact was highly effective in deflecting the asteroid Dimorphos.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF); European Union’s Horizon 2020; French Space Agency (CNES); Agenzia Spaziale Italiana; UK Science and Technology Facilities Council
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC52-07NA27344; 80MSFC20D0004; 870377; 2019-31-HH.0; 80NSSC22K1173; ST/S000615/1; 193346; HST-GO-16674; 80NSSC21K1131; NNH20ZDA001N
- OSTI ID:
- 1971303
- Report Number(s):
- LLNL-JRNL-842726; 1065154; TRN: US2313557
- Journal Information:
- Nature (Basingstoke. Online), Vol. 616; ISSN 1476-4687
- Publisher:
- Springer NatureCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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