Dimorphos

(65803) Didymos I Dimorphos (provisional designation S/2003 (65803) 1) is a minor-planet moon of the near-Earth asteroid 65803 Didymos. It has a diameter of 170 metres (560 ft) and has been called a low-density rubble pile. It was discovered in 2003 at the Ondřejov Observatory.

Dimorphos was the target of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), a NASA space mission that crashed with the moon in September 2022 on purpose.[1][2] The ESA mission Hera is planned to arrive at the Didymos system in 2026 to further study the effects of the collision on the moon.

Dimorphos Media

References

  1. Paoletta, Rae (26 September 2022). "See DART's final images before it smashed into an asteroid". The Planetary Society. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
  2. Witze, Alexandra (27 September 2022). "Fresh images reveal fireworks when NASA spacecraft plowed into asteroid". Nature. doi:10.1038/d41586-022-03067-y. PMID 36167993. S2CID 252566403. Retrieved 28 September 2022.