#dartmission — Public Fediverse posts

The #HeraMission and also the #DARTMission.

QT ESA Operations @operations.esa.int‬

Humans changed an asteroid - now we find out how!

Especially for Asteroid Day, watch the full story so far of our Hera mission, on its way thru deep space to probe the first Solar System body transformed by human action: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2026/06/Humans_changed_an_asteroid._Now_we_find_out_how

Erste menschengemachte Beeinflussung einer heliozentrischen Umlaufbahn. DART-Mission ändert solare Umlaufbahn eines Asteroidenpaares. #DARTMission #Asteroid #Rammtest #Asteroidenablenkung
https://www.scinexx.de/news/kosmos/dart-mission-solare-umlaufbahn-des-asteroidenpaares-geaendert/

Big day for #DARTMission alums, as here’s some more work released today! Remember how we said that yes, we were technically also changing Didymos’s orbit around the Sun, but by a small, unmeasurable amount? So, it _was_ a very small amount but Rahil Makadia et al showed it was _not_ unmeasurable.

Asteroid defense mission shift...

NASA’s DART Mission Did More Than Just Nudge an Asteroid, Study Says

In September 2022, NASA’s DART spacecraft rammed into the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos at nearly 15,000 miles per hour…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Space #asteroids #dartmission #NASA #planetarydefense #Science
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/508030/

RE: https://squeet.me/display/962c3e10-158e8e14-c957b7b6fb1818db

We await the #HeraMission arriving at #Didymos and #Dimorphos to see exactly what the #DARTMission did.

Last week in the Planetary Science Journal:

Ďurech et al. 2025, "A Change of the Rotation Period of Asteroid (65803) Didymos Caused by the DART Impact" - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/ae29ec/meta .

Reshaping and debris from the impact onto Dimorphos changing the shape of Didymos just a little bit.

Relevant for both the #DARTMission and the #HeraMission .

Kasper Zoellner reviews the #DARTMission and its deflection of the asteroid Dimorphos for Astrobites: https://aasnova.org/2025/11/03/shot-by-the-dart-and-were-to-blame-now-that-space-rock-wont-be-the-same/ .

With Bon Jovi references I had not expected.

Today on the arXiv:

Agrusa & Chatenet 2025, "Gravitational scattering of ejecta in the Didymos system cannot explain the evolution of the binary's orbital period" - https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.20197

More #DARTMission science in advance of the #HeraMission arriving.

The impact hazard session at #EPSCDPS2025 features overviews of the #DARTMission and the #HeraMission: https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC-DPS2025/session/55132 .

And also a reminder of the importance of avoiding causing an impact hazard when addressing the impact hazard.

Today in the Planetary Science Journal:

Lolachi et al. 2025, "Ejecta Mass Estimates from the DART Impact Plume Inferred from LICIACube Images" - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/adec6b

#DARTMission and #HeraMission science.

The #DARTMission and LICIACube made APOD again today:

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250728.html

Thread with a few selected #DARTMission animations from Farnham et al. "High-Speed Boulders and the Debris Field in DART Ejecta"
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.16694

I have slowed down the animations to my liking, alt text is from the authors' descriptions. All original files available at
https://drum.lib.umd.edu/items/968963ed-ccee-4532-af5d-6e6e362d6d15/full

ZIP file: https://drum.lib.umd.edu/bitstreams/d2869cf0-cc90-458b-bdcf-945223ffe4c2/download

h/t @michael_w_busch

🧵 1/4

For those who have not read the entire paper:

Tony Farnham and company have tracked boulders in the #DARTMission ejecta, identifying clusters of boulders produced by the spacecraft's impact fragmenting specific blocks on Dimorphos' surface.

Woah.

Today on the #arXiv:

Farnham et al. 2025, "High-Speed Boulders and the Debris Field in DART Ejecta" - https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.16694

#DARTMission science with predictions for the #HeraMission.

And demonstrating how things can go sideways in a collision.

Today on the #arXiv :

López-Oquendo et al. 2025, "Thermal and Optical Characterization of Near-Earth Objects: Science Commissioning of the Recently Upgraded Mid-Infrared Camera MIRSI" - https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.13943

Including observations of Didymos before and after the #DARTMission impact.

Consistent with other observations of the ejecta (including from ALMA as detailed in Roth et al. 2023).

Today in the Planetary Science Journal:

Kolokolova et al. 2025, "Characterization of the DART Ejecta Using Computer Modeling of the Ground-based and HST Photopolarimetric Data" - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/adda47

#DARTMission

Steve Chesley describes the heliocentric orbit change for Didymos from the #DARTMission impact, rather that the orbit change of Dimorphos about Didymos.

~12 microns/second, measured by occultation timing.

Lots of science from chasing shadows.

#PDC2025

#PDC2025 resumes with @schmemela leading discussion of different asteroid deflection methods; including both the #DARTMission & other work on kinetic impact deflection and things like gravity tractor deflection.

The last panel title is a reference to "The Expanse".

But Andy Cheng, lead investigator for the #DARTMission to demonstrate asteroid deflection, also previously worked on the NEAR Shoemaker mission to Eros.

So Eros did in fact change everything where asteroid science is concerned.

Today on the #arXiv :

Langner et al. 2025, "Secondary impact debris in the Didymos system: what could be observed by Hera?" - https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.08158

Describing possibilities for the #HeraMission observing lingering debris from the #DARTMission impact hitting one of the asteroids.

Today on the #arXiv :

Richardson et al. 2025, "The Dynamical State of the Didymos System Before and After the DART Impact" - https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.14990

Reviewing the results of the #DARTMission impact.

"The largest uncertainty in the momentum transfer enhancement factor of the DART impact remains the mass of Dimorphos, which will be resolved by the #HeraMission ."

Today in the Planetary Science Journal:

Stickle et al. 2025, "Dimorphos's Material Properties and Estimates of Crater Size from the DART Impact" - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/ad944d

Estimating the crater diameter from the #DARTMission impact as 40-60 m and awaiting constraints by the #HeraMission .

As an aside:

This is why I wonder about the risk of the pending CNSA asteroid deflection demonstration shattering its target object.

@michael_w_busch it bothers me so much that the "official" animations are so shaky, it never felt that way watching it live. Obviously because of the frame rate, but still...

Here's for example @65dBnoise 's stabilized version but running at half-speed. Original with ALT text at https://fosstodon.org/@65dBnoise/109073020138233000

#DARTMission

Animation from the #DARTMission on final approach to run into the asteroid #Dimorphos in 2022 September.

Dimorphos is the smaller one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-OvnVdZP_8

For those unaware:

NASA and ESA have demonstrated kinetic impactor asteroid deflection, running a spacecraft into an asteroid, with the #DARTMission and the #HeraMission .

I would like to see a gravity tractor demonstration, using a spacecraft's gravity to pull an asteroid around, but it is slower.

Today in the Planetary Science Journal:

DeCoster et al. 2024, "Statistical Analysis of Near-surface Structure and Material Properties on Momentum Transfer in Rubble Pile Targets Impacted by Kinetic Impactors" - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/ad7cff

#DARTMission

Today in the Planetary Science Journal:

Vincent et al. 2024, "Macroscale Roughness Reveals the Complex History of Asteroids Didymos and Dimorphos" - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/ad7a01 .

More #DARTMission science in advance of the #HeraMission arriving back at #Didymos .

Asteroiden-Sonde Hera ist gestartet. ESA-Raumsonde soll Folgen des DART-Rammversuchs vor Ort untersuchen. #HERA #ESA #DARTMission #Raumfahrt #Raumsonde #Asteroiden
https://www.scinexx.de/news/kosmos/asteroiden-sonde-hera-ist-gestartet/