![]() A glimpse at DidymosĭART's view of Dimorphos' larger companion, Didymos, was even more cursory, since near the end of approach it slipped out of the spacecraft's field of view. Hera will explore the asteroid and the impact's aftermath in three dimensions and without DART's haste. Scientists can also look forward to insight from the European Space Agency's Hera mission, due to launch in 2024 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and arrive at Dimorphos two years later. So in that sense, I think it was more regularly shaped than I had expected."Īs analysis continues, Ernst added, scientists will be looking for clues about whether the material on Dimorphos' surface appears to move, which could make the asteroid relatively round. "People often call asteroids big potatoes because they have plenty irregular shapes. "It was less irregular than I expected," she said. "Could the interior be a bunch of larger objects with smaller stuff on top of it? Could it be what it looks like on the surface all the way down? We don't directly have any insight into that."Ī second characteristic of Dimorphos that struck Ernst during DART's approach was its egg-like shape, at least as seen from DART's approach angle. "We don't have a direct way of measuring the interior," Ernst said. That said, DART didn't reveal the innards of Dimorphos, so the rubble pile appearance may not hold up. (Image credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona) NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft captured this image of the asteroid Bennu using its MapCam imager on Dec. "Because it looks so rubbly and because of what we know of those other asteroids, I think a lot of people imagine that it is sort of a rubble pile or kind of a loosely held-together collection of rocks," Ernst said. Spacecraft have seen this kind of surface before: Japan's Hayabusa2 mission to Ryugu and NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission to Bennu both found themselves exploring agglomerations of rock, worlds that scientists call "rubble pile" asteroids. One characteristic of Dimorphos jumped out as soon as scientists saw DART's final few images before impact: its rocky surface strewn with boulders, dust and everything in between. For much of DART's journey, the asteroids appeared as one bright dot, but by about 10 minutes before impact, that dot began to transform into two small but unique worlds. Before DART's November 2021 launch, scientists got a sense of both rocks' shapes thanks to planetary radar, bouncing a beam of radio waves off the asteroids.Īs the DART spacecraft was sailing toward its final destination, that's about all scientists knew about the pair of rocks.ĭART's sole instrument, Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical Navigation (DRACO), was able to change that. The 525-foot-wide (160 meters) Dimorphos orbits a larger asteroid called Didymos, which is perhaps 2,560 feet (780 m) across.
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