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https://www.extremetech.com/science/nasas-dart-mission-accidentally-redirected-space-rocks-at-mars
NASA chalked up a major accomplishment with DART—the Double Asteroid Redirection Test. In 2022, the DART spacecraft successfully plunged into a space rock dubbed Dimorphos. The test showed that it is possible to redirect an asteroid, potentially saving Earth from a future cataclysm, and it may not take as much energy as previously believed. Some bits of Dimorphos have been redirected a bit more substantially than expected. A new study projects that fragments of Dimorphos may one day collide with Mars due to DART's impact.
Until the last several years, no one had ever gotten an up-close look at the surface of an asteroid. Now, not only have we seen several of them in the rocky flesh, but both Japan and the US have collected large samples from asteroids. We are beginning to learn that many asteroids are not the monolithic objects we thought. Instead, they're more akin to floating rubble piles. When OSIRIS-REx touched down on Bennu to collect its record-setting sample, it was almost swallowed up by the gravel-strewn surface. In the case of DART, NASA has confirmed that the impact changed the shape of the object, which is about the size of The Great Pyramid of Giza, but it also flung some large boulders into space.
The new study, available on the pre-print arXiv server, says the impact of DART ejected at least 37 boulders from Dimorphos, some up to 22 feet (seven meters) in diameter—the specs visible in the image above. The swarm of space rocks is still clustered near Dimorphos and its orbital partner Didymos, but that won't be the case forever. The study sought to track the potential course those objects will take, and the researchers claim these fragments will get around over the next 20,000 years.
NASA chalked up a major accomplishment with DART—the Double Asteroid Redirection Test. In 2022, the DART spacecraft successfully plunged into a space rock dubbed Dimorphos. The test showed that it is possible to redirect an asteroid, potentially saving Earth from a future cataclysm, and it may not take as much energy as previously believed. Some bits of Dimorphos have been redirected a bit more substantially than expected. A new study projects that fragments of Dimorphos may one day collide with Mars due to DART's impact.
Until the last several years, no one had ever gotten an up-close look at the surface of an asteroid. Now, not only have we seen several of them in the rocky flesh, but both Japan and the US have collected large samples from asteroids. We are beginning to learn that many asteroids are not the monolithic objects we thought. Instead, they're more akin to floating rubble piles. When OSIRIS-REx touched down on Bennu to collect its record-setting sample, it was almost swallowed up by the gravel-strewn surface. In the case of DART, NASA has confirmed that the impact changed the shape of the object, which is about the size of The Great Pyramid of Giza, but it also flung some large boulders into space.
The new study, available on the pre-print arXiv server, says the impact of DART ejected at least 37 boulders from Dimorphos, some up to 22 feet (seven meters) in diameter—the specs visible in the image above. The swarm of space rocks is still clustered near Dimorphos and its orbital partner Didymos, but that won't be the case forever. The study sought to track the potential course those objects will take, and the researchers claim these fragments will get around over the next 20,000 years.
