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Updated: Mar 8, 2026

Scattering And Absorption of Light in Planetary Regoliths
Published on: July 1, 2019
Direct detection of an asteroid's heliocentric deflection: The Didymos system after DART
Rahil Makadia1, Steven R Chesley2, David Herald3
1University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
None:
In September 2022, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft crashed into Dimorphos and demonstrated the kinetic impact method of protecting Earth from asteroids. A fraction of the impulse delivered to Dimorphos was also imparted onto the Didymos system's barycenter, changing its heliocentric orbit. Here, we present the first-ever measurement of human-caused change in the heliocentric orbit of a celestial body. Thanks to stellar occultation and radar measurements, we estimate that the Didymos system experienced an along-track velocity change of -11.7 ± 1.3 micrometers per second. We constrain the heliocentric momentum enhancement factor for DART at 2.0 ± 0.3 and the bulk densities of Didymos and Dimorphos at 2600 ± 140 and 1540 ± 220 kilograms per cubic meter, respectively. Our results demonstrate that targeting the secondary asteroid in binary systems constitutes a possible strategy for kinetic impact deflection, adding to humanity's planetary defense capabilities.
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