The successful impact of NASA’s DART on Dimorphos, the moon of asteroid Didymos, has been analysed using advanced numerical simulations. The results reveal the asteroid’s low surface cohesion and rubble-pile structure, similar to what has been observed on asteroids Ryugu and Bennu.
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References
Daly, R. T. et al. Successful kinetic impact into an asteroid for planetary defence. Nature 616, 443–447 (2023). This paper reports the DART spacecraft’s impact into Dimorphos and reconstructs the impact event.
Cheng, A. F. et al. Momentum transfer from the DART mission kinetic impact on asteroid Dimorphos. Nature 616, 457–460 (2023). This paper reports the determination of the momentum transferred to Dimorphos by the DART impact.
Li, J.-Y. et al. Ejecta from the DART-produced active asteroid Dimorphos. Nature 616, 452–456 (2023). This paper reports observations of the DART impact ejecta using the Hubble Space Telescope, from 15 minutes after the impact to 18.5 days later.
Dotto, E. et al. The Dimorphos ejecta plume properties revealed by LICIACube. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06998-2 (2024). This paper reports the LICIACube data acquired during the DART impact.
Jutzi, M., Raducan, S. D., Zhang, Y., Michel, P. & Arakawa, M. Constraining surface properties of asteroid (162173) Ryugu from numerical simulations of Hayabusa2 mission impact experiment. Nat. Commun. 13, 7134 (2022). This paper presents simulations of the ‘small carry-on impactor’ (SCI) experiment on asteroid Ryugu.
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This is a summary of: Raducan, S. D. et al. Physical properties of asteroid Dimorphos as derived from the DART impact. Nat. Astron. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-024-02200-3 (2024).
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Modelling the impact of DART on the asteroid Dimorphos reveals its rubble-pile structure. Nat Astron 8, 411–412 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-024-02208-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-024-02208-9
