DART Team Confirms Orbit of Targeted Asteroid Using some of the world’s most powerful telescopes, the DART investigation team completed a six-night observation campaign last month to confirm earlier calculations of the orbit of Dimorphos—DART’s asteroid target. Dimorphos is in orbit around its larg
Using some of the world’s most powerful telescopes, the DART investigation team completed a six-night observation campaign last month to confirm earlier calculations of the orbit of Dimorphos—DART’s asteroid target. Dimorphos is in orbit around its larger parent asteroid, Didymos. These observations confirm where the asteroid is expected to be located at the time of impact.
Understanding the dynamics of Dimorphos’ orbit, however, is important for reasons beyond ensuring DART’s impact. If DART succeeds in altering Dimorphos’ path, the moonlet will move closer toward Didymos, decreasing the time it takes to orbit it. Although measuring that change is straightforward, scientists need to confirm that nothing other than the impact is affecting the orbit.
In late September to early October, around the time of DART’s impact, Didymos and Dimorphos will make their closest approach to Earth in recent years. This will place them at approximately 6.7 million miles away. Since March 2021 the Didymos system had been out of range of most ground-based telescopes because of its distance from Earth.
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