Didymos is a binary asteroid system: a pair of innocent, lumpy rocks minding their very own enterprise as they spin via space. NASA’s DART mission crashed a spaceship into them on Sept. 26, 2022. The smaller asteroid within the system, referred to as Dimorphos, was the goal of a NASA mission to reveal its creating planetary protection strategies. Whereas Didymos will not be menace to Earth, this know-how may shield Earth from different space rocks which may be extra harmful.
What’s Didymos?
The pair of asteroids collectively are referred to as Didymos, however individually the 2 rocks are Didymos and Dimorphos. Didymos is a big asteroid round half a mile (2,560 ft or 780 meters) in size, whereas Dimorphos measures a mere 525 ft (160 m), in line with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL), the place the DART mission is predicated. In some earlier protection from House.com, Dimorphos has been known as Didymos’ moonlet or as “Didymoon.”
As the 2 asteroids orbit the sun, Dimorphos additionally orbits Didymos, circling its bigger twin each 11 hours and 55 minutes.
For many years, telescopes on Earth like Arecibo Observatory and Lowell Discovery Telescope have been in a position to monitor that motion “similar to clockwork,” stated planetary scientist Nancy Chabot of JHUAPL throughout a press convention held earlier than DART’s launch. As Dimorphos passes between Didymos and Earth, telescopes across the globe can measure the ensuing change in brightness from the system.
Why does NASA wish to crash into Didymos?
The clockwork movement of the Didymos system makes it excellent for the DART mission, an illustration of NASA’s means to redirect harmful asteroids off collision programs with Earth. Didymos itself poses no menace to our planet, however will function a check goal.
Researchers on Earth will have the ability to observe the impact of the DART spacecraft hurtling head-on into Dimorphos, the smaller asteroid. Based on Chabot, after the affect the scientists anticipated to see Dimorphos to finish a loop of Didymos some 10 minutes quicker than its historic schedule.
DART additionally carried a cubesat to movie the bigger spacecraft’s affect and beam the footage again to researchers on Earth.
On the time of DART’s affect, Didymos was seen sufficient to be an excellent candidate for examine and distant sufficient to be no hazard, at roughly 6.8 million miles (11 kilometers) away from Earth.
What else can we find out about Didymos?
Didymos is among the Amor group of asteroids, near-Earth asteroids named after asteroid 1221 Amor. These asteroids orbit the sun principally between the orbits of Earth and Mars. Didymos particularly takes just a little over two years to finish an elliptical orbit across the sun, in line with NASA‘s in-depth web page on Didymos.
The bigger asteroid of Didymos in all probability has a rocky floor lined in boulders, though NASA wrote that it doubtless lacks the regolith, or advantageous dust, that covers Earth’s moon and different asteroids. It additionally lacks any ambiance, rings or magnetosphere.
Photos taken by DART because the spacecraft sped towards its finish present a subject of grey crags, boulders and pebbles.
