NASA's DART mission hammered its target asteroid into a new shape. Here's how

[WestMichRad]

https://www.space.com/nasa-dart-asteroid-mission-dimorphos-shape-change

When NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) was purposely crashed into an asteroid back in 2022, the shape of the asteroid was changed. The purpose of the DART mission was to determine if we could change the path of an asteroid. When the satellite impacted Dimorphos, the smaller of the binary asteroid pair, astronomers were able to measure how much its orbit around its larger asteroid companion, Didymos.

From the article:
“Now, however, scientists have shown that it seems DART didn't just give Dimorphos a push; it also hit Dimorphos with enough kinetic energy to reshape it.

“ “The entire shape of the asteroid has changed, from a relatively symmetrical object to a 'triaxial ellipsoid' — something more like an oblong watermelon," said Shantanu Naidu of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in a statement.
“Originally, Dimorphos would have been an oblate spheroid, which is kind of like a squashed ball. The impact of DART at 5 kilometers per second (3 miles per second) sent shockwaves through the asteroid, resulting in it becoming more elongated and shifting its axis of rotation off-center. The new shape is inferred by astronomers from the light curve of the Didymos–Dimorphos system, which is aligned in such a way that we can see them transiting and eclipsing one another.

“This conclusion from Naidu's team is also shared in work published in February by a group spearheaded by Sabina Raducan of the University of Bern in Switzerland. Raducan's team concluded that the impact had resulted in up to 1% of Dimorphos' mass being ejected into space, and another 8% being redistributed across the surface as the asteroid absorbed the impact energy and reshaped itself. The conclusion was that, to allow itself to morph in such a way, Dimorphos must be a loose rubble pile — an agglomeration of dirt and rocks held together by weak gravity and which can easily be reshaped, as opposed to a rigid structure that would not give as easily.”

Interesting finding! More at link.

[gay texan]

1. Im a right sucker for space science!!! N/T

[WestMichRad]

2. Me too!