DART CODE WITH ASTEROID: DIMIMIRF Even the crater is left

Researchers have found that the strongest stroke has completely changed the appearance of the asteroid. Two years ago, NASA successfully tested a planetary protection system in space. The Dart mission went to collision with Asteroid Mimorph, a small companion of Asteroid Didim. The mission was successful and for the first time humanity changed the orbit of the celestial body, IFLSCIENCE writes. The trials have gone so well that even the appearance of Drizhrif may have changed.

In focus, technology appeared its Telegram channel. Subscribe to not miss the most info and interesting news from the world of science! On September 26, 2022, Dart launched the engines and crashed into a diarrph. It was expected that Dart would reduce the rotation period of the asteroid around Didim for seven minutes. In fact, it was possible to reduce this period by more than 33 minutes. During the collision from the asteroid, boulders also flew, which were spotted by several telescopes.

The results have exceeded all expectations, but it is important to understand how so much the movement of this body has been changed. Researchers managed to conduct a series of simulations of the properties of dimorph, and now a rather dramatic picture is emerging. The density of Dart and the boulders that make up its surface were evaluated on the basis of the data that collected the DART apparatus before the collision.

In combination with other data, researchers have found that Drizhrif is a bunch of stones similar to Ruga and Benn asteroids, which also visited other space missions. Scientists believe that Dimorph is a accumulation of material that drops its asteroid duty during rotation. It was for this reason that Mimorif behaved extremely surprisingly while struck by Dart. In fact, the blow changed the appearance of Drizhrif forever, but did not leave a shock crater.

Dimorph has a diameter of about 160 meters compared to 780 meters. The collision with Dart at a high speed of 6. 6 km/s provided enough energy to make the appearance of the asteroid change forever. But the material of which the Dimorph consists is so loose that the blow led to the restructuring of the whole asteroid. The crater is not left, because the whole asteroid has changed around the fall.

The same happened earlier when another Osiris-Rex apparatus touched the surface of the Benn asteroid to take the soil sample. It plunged into the loose material that consists of this asteroid. The European Space Agency is expected to launch the next mission called Hera, which will leave and study the new system configuration - researchers are convinced that Hera will find a changed asteroid, but not a crater.