Dimorphos
moon of asteroid 65803 Didymos
(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 feet). It 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 Dimorphos in September 2022 on purpose.[1][2] The European Space Agency mission Hera is planned to arrive at the Didymos system in 2026. It will study the effects of the collision on the moon.
References
change- ↑ Paoletta, Rae (26 September 2022). "See DART's final images before it smashed into an asteroid". The Planetary Society. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
- ↑ 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.