Initially, scientists had planned that the orbital time would be reduced by just 10 minutes. According to NASA, this is the first time humanity has deliberately altered the motion of a celestial body and is the first full-scale demonstration of asteroid deflection technology.
Before colliding with the DART probe, Dimorphus needed 11 hours and 55 minutes to complete one orbit around its larger parent asteroid, Didymus. Astronomers used telescopes on Earth to measure how much orbital time had changed after the September 26 collision. It turned out that the collision shortened Dimorphos’ orbit from 11 hours 55 minutes to 11 hours 23 minutes.
Exceeded expectations 25 times
NASA determined that the minimum successful change in Dimorphus’ orbital period was 73 seconds or more. Available data suggest that DART exceeds this criterion by more than 25 times. The research team continues to collect data from ground observatories and radars around the world to improve the accuracy of the new orbital prediction.
More information on the asteroid’s physical properties, such as surface properties, is needed to understand the launch effect, and researchers are reportedly currently working on this.