New research suggests that when NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft deliberately collided with the asteroid Dimorphos in September 2022, the impact may have caused a “global deformation” of the space rock.

The primary objective of the DART mission was to conduct a full-scale test of asteroid deflection technology for planetary defense.

The mission aimed to determine if a kinetic impact, involving crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid at 13,645 miles per hour (6.1 kilometers per second), could alter the motion of a celestial object in space.

Dimorphos, a moonlet asteroid orbiting a larger parent asteroid called Didymos, and neither pose a threat to Earth, CNN reported.

However, the double-asteroid system served as an ideal target to test deflection technology, given that Dimorphos’ size is comparable to asteroids that could potentially threaten Earth.

Since the impact, astronomers have utilized data from ground-based telescopes to ascertain that the DART spacecraft did indeed alter Dimorphos’ orbital period by approximately 32 to 33 minutes.

While this provides valuable information on changing the motion of asteroids, understanding the composition of space rocks is crucial for developing effective deflection techniques.

Different asteroid types, whether hard and stony or loose rubble piles, would require distinct deflection strategies, particularly when dealing with asteroids that might be on a collision course with Earth in the future.

Written by B.C. Begley