Successful kinetic impact into an asteroid for planetary defence
Status PubMed-not-MEDLINE Language English Country Great Britain, England Media print-electronic
Document type Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't, Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Grant support
80MSFC20D0004
NASA - United States
20-DARTPSP20-0007
NASA - United States
PubMed
36858073
PubMed Central
PMC10115643
DOI
10.1038/s41586-023-05810-5
PII: 10.1038/s41586-023-05810-5
Knihovny.cz E-resources
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
- Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. MeSH
Although no known asteroid poses a threat to Earth for at least the next century, the catalogue of near-Earth asteroids is incomplete for objects whose impacts would produce regional devastation1,2. Several approaches have been proposed to potentially prevent an asteroid impact with Earth by deflecting or disrupting an asteroid1-3. A test of kinetic impact technology was identified as the highest-priority space mission related to asteroid mitigation1. NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission is a full-scale test of kinetic impact technology. The mission's target asteroid was Dimorphos, the secondary member of the S-type binary near-Earth asteroid (65803) Didymos. This binary asteroid system was chosen to enable ground-based telescopes to quantify the asteroid deflection caused by the impact of the DART spacecraft4. Although past missions have utilized impactors to investigate the properties of small bodies5,6, those earlier missions were not intended to deflect their targets and did not achieve measurable deflections. Here we report the DART spacecraft's autonomous kinetic impact into Dimorphos and reconstruct the impact event, including the timeline leading to impact, the location and nature of the DART impact site, and the size and shape of Dimorphos. The successful impact of the DART spacecraft with Dimorphos and the resulting change in the orbit of Dimorphos7 demonstrates that kinetic impactor technology is a viable technique to potentially defend Earth if necessary.
Astronomical Institute AS CR Ondrejov Czech Republic
Auburn University Auburn AL USA
Centro de Astrobiologiá CSIC INTA Torrejón de Ardoz Spain
Imperial College London London UK
INAF Astronomical Observatory of Padova Padua Italy
Institute of Geology of the Czech Academy of Sciences Prague Czech Republic
Institute of Space Sciences Barcelona Spain
ISAE SUPAERO Université de Toulouse Toulouse France
Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Pasadena CA USA
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Laurel MD USA
Johns Hopkins University Baltimore MD USA
Lowell Observatory Flagstaff AZ USA
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge MA USA
Michigan State University East Lansing MI USA
Museum für Naturkunde Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science Berlin Germany
Nabla Zero Labs South Pasadena CA USA
Northern Arizona University Flagstaff AZ USA
Planetary Science Institute Tucson AZ USA
Politecnico di Milano Milan Italy
Southwest Research Institute Boulder CO USA
Technical University of Kenya Nairobi Kenya
Université Côte d'Azur Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur CNRS Laboratoire Lagrange Nice France
University of Arizona Tucson AZ USA
University of Bern Bern Switzerland
University of Colorado Boulder CO USA
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