{"id":602327,"date":"2026-04-23T21:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T21:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/602327\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T21:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T21:20:12","slug":"nasas-dart-spacecraft-changed-an-asteroids-orbit-around-the-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/602327\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s DART Spacecraft Changed An Asteroid\u2019s Orbit Around The Sun"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/dart-poster3.jpeg\" class=\"\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>  An illustration of the DART spacecraft heading toward the Didymos binary asteroid system (Credit: NASA\/ Public Domain)      <\/p>\n<p>NASA scientists have confirmed that a spacecraft can help change the path of an asteroid in space. This finding suggests that a dangerous asteroid headed toward Earth could be pushed off course if needed.<\/p>\n<p>The discovery comes from NASA\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dogonews.com\/2019\/2\/25\/nasas-dart-mission-will-test-our-planetary-defense-capabilities-against-asteroids\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Double Asteroid Redirection Test (<\/a>DART) mission. Its purpose was to try to change the path of an asteroid.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dogonews.com\/2022\/9\/27\/nasas-dart-spacecraft-successfully-crashes-into-an-asteroid\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">In September 2022<\/a>, the spacecraft intentionally crashed into a small asteroid called Dimorphos. It orbits a larger asteroid named Didymos. Together, they form a binary system. This means the two objects are held together by gravity. This system was chosen because its motion is easy to track.<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/chatgpt-image-apr-15-2026-02_41_08-pm.png\" class=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>  An illustration of how the spacecraft&#8217;s impact shortened Dimorphos\u2019 orbit around Didymos (Credit: DOGOnews.com)      <\/p>\n<p>Early observations showed that the impact shortened Dimorphos\u2019 orbit around Didymos by about 32 minutes. Part of this change came from the crash itself. The rest was caused by a cloud of rock and dust ejected from the asteroid.<\/p>\n<p>More recent analysis revealed an additional effect. A study published in Science Advances in March 2026 found that the impact also slightly changed the system\u2019s path around the Sun. The shift is tiny \u2014 about 1.7 inches (4.3 cm) per hour. Even so, small changes in space can grow over time. This is the first time scientists have measured a real change in an object\u2019s path around the Sun.<\/p>\n<p data-end=\"1623\" data-start=\"1440\">&#8220;These results show that we can now confidently say we have the ability to push asteroids,&#8221; says the study&#8217;s lead author, Rahil Makadia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"news-resources\" data-end=\"2361\" data-start=\"2015\">Resources: NASA.gov, ScientificAmerican.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An illustration of the DART spacecraft heading toward the Didymos binary asteroid system (Credit: NASA\/ Public Domain) NASA&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[228,223,151,48151,108898,22029,108899,8284,108896,108897,7046,8242,79,193,14488],"class_list":{"0":"post-602327","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-books","10":"tag-children","11":"tag-current-events","12":"tag-ela","13":"tag-english","14":"tag-english-language-arts","15":"tag-kids","16":"tag-kids-news","17":"tag-kids-news-articles","18":"tag-language","19":"tag-reading","20":"tag-science","21":"tag-space","22":"tag-students"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602327","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=602327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}