Huge Boulders Ejected by DART Mission May Complicate Future Asteroid Deflection

When NASA’s DART spacecraft smashed into the asteroid moon Dimorphos in 2022, it was greater than proof {that a} kinetic impactor can nudge the orbit of an asteroid. The affect created about 100 giant boulders, a few of which had larger than 3 times the spacecraft’s momentum. These high-speed ejecta added unanticipated forces that will complicate future planetary defence efforts. Utilizing knowledge from Italy’s LICIACube—an observer satellite tv for pc deployed throughout the mission—a College of Maryland-led group tracked the rocks’ places and velocities, revealing a fancy and doubtlessly disruptive affect legacy.