Achievement of the planetary defense investigations of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission

Chabot, Nancy L., Rivkin, Andrew S., Cheng, Andrew F., Barnouin, Olivier S., Fahnestock, Eugene G., Richardson, Derek C., Stickle, Angela M., Thomas, Cristina A., Ernst, Carolyn M., Terik Daly, R., Dotto, Elisabetta, Zinzi, Angelo, Chesley, Steven R., Moskovitz, Nicholas A., Barbee, Brent W., Abell, Paul, Agrusa, Harrison F., Bannister, Michele T., Beccarelli, Joel, Bekker, Dmitriy L., Bruck Syal, Megan, Buratti, Bonnie J., Busch, Michael W., Campo Bagatin, Adriano, Chatelain, Joseph P., Chocron, Sidney, Collins, Gareth S., Conversi, Luca, Davison, Thomas M., DeCoster, Mallory E., Prasanna Deshapriya, J. D., Eggl, Siegfried, Espiritu, Raymond C., Farnham, Tony L., Ferrais, Marin, Ferrari, Fabio, Föhring, Dora, Fuentes-Muñoz, Oscar, Gai, Igor, Giordano, Carmine, Glenar, David A., Gomez, Edward ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5749-1507, Graninger, Dawn M., Green, Simon F., Greenstreet, Sarah, Hasselmann, Pedro H., Herreros, Isabel, Hirabayashi, Masatoshi, Husárik, Marek, Ieva, Simone, Ivanovski, Stavro L., Jackson, Samuel L., Jehin, Emmanuel, Jutzi, Martin, Karatekin, Ozgur, Knight, Matthew M., Kolokolova, Ludmilla, Kumamoto, Kathryn M., Küppers, Michael, La Forgia, Fiorangela, Lazzarin, Monica, Li, Jian-Yang, Lister, Tim A., Lolachi, Ramin, Lucas, Michael P., Lucchetti, Alice, Luther, Robert, Makadia, Rahil, Mazzotta Epifani, Elena, McMahon, Jay, Merisio, Gianmario, Merrill, Colby C., Meyer, Alex J., Michel, Patrick, Micheli, Marco, Migliorini, Alessandra, Minker, Kate, Modenini, Dario, Moreno, Fernando, Murdoch, Naomi, Murphy, Brian, Naidu, Shantanu P., Nair, Hari, Nakano, Ryota, Opitom, Cyrielle, Ormö, Jens, Michael Owen, J., Pajola, Maurizio, Palmer, Eric E., Palumbo, Pasquale, Panicucci, Paolo, Parro, Laura M., Pearl, Jason M., Penttilä, Antti, Perna, Davide, Petrescu, Elisabeta, Pravec, Petr, Raducan, Sabina D., Ramesh, K. T., Ridden-Harper, Ryan, Rizos, Juan L., Rossi, Alessandro, Roth, Nathan X., Rożek, Agata, Rozitis, Benjamin, Ryan, Eileen V., Ryan, William H., Sánchez, Paul, Santana-Ros, Toni, Scheeres, Daniel J., Scheirich, Peter, Berk Senel, Cem, Snodgrass, Colin, Soldini, Stefania, Souami, Damya, Statler, Thomas S., Street, Rachel, Stubbs, Timothy J., Sunshine, Jessica M., Tan, Nicole J., Tancredi, Gonzalo, Tinsman, Calley L., Tortora, Paolo, Tusberti, Filippo, Walker, James D., Waller, C. Dany, Wünnemann, Kai, Zannoni, Marco and Zhang, Yun 2024. Achievement of the planetary defense investigations of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission. The Planetary Science Journal 5 (2) , 49. 10.3847/psj/ad16e6

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Abstract

NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission was the first to demonstrate asteroid deflection, and the mission's Level 1 requirements guided its planetary defense investigations. Here, we summarize DART's achievement of those requirements. On 2022 September 26, the DART spacecraft impacted Dimorphos, the secondary member of the Didymos near-Earth asteroid binary system, demonstrating an autonomously navigated kinetic impact into an asteroid with limited prior knowledge for planetary defense. Months of subsequent Earth-based observations showed that the binary orbital period was changed by –33.24 minutes, with two independent analysis methods each reporting a 1σ uncertainty of 1.4 s. Dynamical models determined that the momentum enhancement factor, β, resulting from DART's kinetic impact test is between 2.4 and 4.9, depending on the mass of Dimorphos, which remains the largest source of uncertainty. Over five dozen telescopes across the globe and in space, along with the Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids, have contributed to DART's investigations. These combined investigations have addressed topics related to the ejecta, dynamics, impact event, and properties of both asteroids in the binary system. A year following DART's successful impact into Dimorphos, the mission has achieved its planetary defense requirements, although work to further understand DART's kinetic impact test and the Didymos system will continue. In particular, ESA's Hera mission is planned to perform extensive measurements in 2027 during its rendezvous with the Didymos–Dimorphos system, building on DART to advance our knowledge and continue the ongoing international collaboration for planetary defense.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Physics and Astronomy
Additional Information:	License information from Publisher: LICENSE 1: URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, Type: cc-by
Publisher:	IOP Publishing
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	27 February 2024
Date of Acceptance:	15 December 2023
Last Modified:	27 Feb 2024 10:01
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/166564

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