summary<\/a> of the research reminds us that scientists use the term \u201cmomentum enhancement factor\u201d to describe the thrust imparted when one object hits another in space.<\/p>\n\u201cThe momentum enhancement factor for DART\u2019s impact was about two, meaning that the debris loss doubled the punch created by the spacecraft alone,\u201d the summary explains before adding \u201cThe new study shows the impact ejected so much material from the binary system that it also changed the binary\u2019s orbital period around the Sun by 0.15 seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rahil Makadia, the study\u2019s lead author at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, shared another finding: \u201cThe change in the binary system\u2019s orbital speed was about 11.7 microns per second, or 1.7 inches per hour,\u201d he said. \u201cOver time, such a small change in an asteroid\u2019s motion can make the difference between a hazardous object hitting or missing our planet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a tiny change to the orbit, but given enough time, even a tiny change can grow to a significant deflection,\u201d said Thomas Statler, lead scientist for solar system small bodies at NASA Headquarters in Washington. \u201cThe team\u2019s amazingly precise measurement again validates kinetic impact as a technique for defending Earth against asteroid hazards and shows how a binary asteroid might be deflected by impacting just one member of the pair.\u201d<\/p>\n
The method used to reach that conclusion is also interesting, as the authors of the paper used observations conducted by volunteer astronomers who recorded 22 stellar occultations between October 2022 and March 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen combined with years of existing ground-based observations, these stellar occultation observations became key in helping us calculate how DART had changed Didymos\u2019 orbit,\u201d said study co-lead Steve Chesley, a senior research scientist at JPL. \u201cThis work is highly weather dependent and often requires travel to remote regions with no guarantee of success. This result would not have been possible without the dedication of dozens of volunteer occultation observers around the world.\u201d \u00ae<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASA has published new analysis of its 2022 planetary defense test that suggests the mission slowed down the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[79,193],"class_list":["post-512643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}