NASA's Dart Mission Changed Orbit of Asteroid Didymos Around Sun

NASA’s DART Mission Changed Orbit of Asteroid Didymos Around Sun - NASA Search Suggested Searches Climate Change Artemis Expedition 64 Mars perseverance SpaceX Crew-2 International Space Station View All Topics A-Z Home Missions Humans in Space Earth The Solar System The Universe Science Aeronautics Technology Learning Resources About NASA Español News & Events Multimedia NASA+ Featured 3 min read Ice to Fuel: NASA Tests Technology for Refueling Landers article 3 days ago 6 min read NASA Discovers Crash of Extreme Stars in Unexpected Site article 3 days ago 3 min read What’s Up: March 2026 Skywatching Tips from NASA article 2 weeks ago Back Missions Search All NASA Missions A to Z List of Missions Upcoming Launches and Landings Spaceships and Rockets Communicating with Missions Artemis James Webb Space Telescope Hubble Space Telescope International Space Station OSIRIS-Rex Humans in Space Why Go to Space Astronauts Commercial Space Destinations Spaceships and Rockets Living in Space Earth Explore Earth Science Climate Change Earth, Our Planet Earth Science in Action Earth Multimedia Earth Data Earth Science Researchers The Solar System The Sun Mercury Venus Earth The Moon Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto & Dwarf Planets Asteroids, Comets & Meteors The Kuiper Belt The Oort Cloud Skywatching The Universe Exoplanets The Search for Life in the Universe Stars Galaxies Black Holes The Big Bang Dark Energy Dark Matter Science Earth Science Planetary Science Astrophysics & Space Science The Sun & Heliophysics Biological & Physical Sciences Lunar Science Citizen Science Astromaterials Aeronautics Research Human Space Travel Research Aeronautics Science in the Air NASA Aircraft Flight Innovation Supersonic Flight Air Traffic Solutions Green Aviation Tech Drones & You Technology Technology Transfer & Spinoffs Space Travel Technology Technology Living in Space Manufacturing and Materials Robotics Science Instruments Computing Learning Resources For Kids and Students For Educators For Colleges and Universities For Professionals Science for Everyone Requests for Exhibits, Artifacts, Speakers & Flyovers STEM Engagement at NASA About NASA NASA's Impacts Centers and Facilities Directorates Organizations People of NASA Careers Internships Our History Doing Business with NASA Get Involved Contact NASA en Español Ciencia Aeronáutica Ciencias Terrestres Sistema Solar Universo News & Events News Releases Recently Published Video Series on NASA+ Podcasts & Audio Blogs Newsletters Social Media Media Resources Events Upcoming Launches & Landings Virtual Guest Program Multimedia NASA+ Images NASA Live NASA Apps Podcasts Image of the Day e-Books Interactives STEM Multimedia NASA Brand & Usage Guidelines Featured 5 min read Tiny NASA Spacecraft Delivers Exoplanet Mission’s First Images article 17 hours ago 6 min read NASA Discovers Crash of Extreme Stars in Unexpected Site article 3 days ago 5 min read NASA’s DART Mission Changed Orbit of Asteroid Didymos Around Sun article 7 days ago Highlights 3 min read Ice to Fuel: NASA Tests Technology for Refueling Landers article 3 days ago 6 min read La NASA refuerza Artemis: añade una misión y perfecciona su arquitectura general article 1 week ago 4 min read NASA Strengthens Artemis: Adds Mission, Refines Overall Architecture article 1 week ago Highlights 3 min read Eruption at Mayon article 6 hours ago 3 min read Dust Outbreak Reaches Europe article 1 day ago 4 min read A Most Unusual Lake article 2 days ago Highlights 4 min read A Most Unusual Lake article 2 days ago 2 min read C.12 FAIMM Correction, Q&A update, and Webinar Materials Available article 3 days ago 3 min read NASA’s Van Allen Probe A Re-Entered Atmosphere article 4 days ago Featured 6 min read NASA Discovers Crash of Extreme Stars in Unexpected Site article 3 days ago 3 min read Two Observatories, One Cosmic Eye: Hubble and Euclid View Cat’s Eye Nebula article 1 week ago 3 min read NASA’s Webb Examines Cranium Nebula article 2 weeks ago Highlights 5 min read Tiny NASA Spacecraft Delivers Exoplanet Mission’s First Images article 17 hours ago 4 min read A Most Unusual Lake article 2 days ago 2 min read CS-6 Science article 3 days ago Highlights 1 min read Aeronautics Transformations article 22 hours ago 10 min read ARMD Research Solicitations (Updated March 6) article 7 days ago 5 min read NASA’s Home for Experimental Flight Advances Aeronautics Mission article 2 weeks ago Highlights 3 min read Ice to Fuel: NASA Tests Technology for Refueling Landers article 3 days ago 3 min read Shades of a Lunar Eclipse article 3 days ago 2 min read Smoke Rises Over Big Cypress National Preserve article 1 week ago Featured 1 min read Join the Artemis Mission to the Moon article 4 months ago Featured 1 min read Help Galaxy Zoo: Tidal Tales Open Cosmic Storybook article 18 hours ago 4 min read NASA Strengthens Artemis: Adds Mission, Refines Overall Architecture article 1 week ago 3 min read From Cabbages to Countdowns: NASA Marks 100 Years of Modern Rocketry article 4 days ago Highlights 6 min read La NASA refuerza Artemis: añade una misión y perfecciona su arquitectura general article 1 week ago 11 min read Últimos preparativos para la primera misión tripulada a la Luna con la campaña Artemis de la NASA article 2 months ago 1 min read TRAPPIST-1 e — Guided Tour-es article 3 months ago 5 min read NASA’s DART Mission Changed Orbit of Asteroid Didymos Around Sun Jet Propulsion Laboratory Mar 06, 2026 Article Contents High impact How they did it More about DART The Italian Space Agency’s LICIACube traveled alongside NASA’s DART to capture the spacecraft’s collision with Dimorphos. In this LICIACube image, taken moments after impact on Sept. 26, 2022, rocky debris can be seen fanning out from the smaller asteroid below its larger binary partner, Didymos. ASI/NASA This image of asteroids Didymos, left, and Dimorphos was captured by NASA’s DART mission a few seconds before the spacecraft smashed into Dimorphos on Sept. 26, 2022. The impact on the smaller asteroid had a measurable effect on the orbit of its larger partner. NASA/Johns Hopkins APL New research reveals that when NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft intentionally impacted the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos in September 2022, it didn’t just change the motion of Dimorphos around its larger companion, Didymos; the crash also shifted the orbit of both asteroids around the Sun. Linked together by gravity, Didymos and Dimorphos orbit each other around a shared center of mass in a configuration known as a binary system, so changes to one asteroid affect the other. As detailed in a study published on Friday in the journal Science Advances, observations of the pair’s motion revealed that the 770-day orbital period around the Sun changed by a fraction of a second after the DART spacecraft’s impact on Dimorphos. That change marks the first time a human-made object has measurably altered the path of a celestial body around the Sun. The Hubble Space Telescope observed two tails of dust ejected from the Didymos-Dimorphos asteroid system several days after NASA’s DART spacecraft impacted the smaller asteroid. NASA, ESA, Jian-Yang Li (PSI), Joe Depasquale (STScI) “This is a tiny change to the orbit, but given enough time, even a tiny change can grow to a significant deflection,” said Thomas Statler, lead scientist for solar system small bodies at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The team’s amazingly precise measurement again validates kinetic impact as a technique for defending Earth against asteroid hazards and shows how a binary asteroid might be deflected by impacting just one member of the pair.” High impact When DART struck Dimorphos, the impact blasted a huge cloud of rocky debris into space, altering the shape of the asteroid, which measures 560 feet (170 meters) wide. Because the debris carried its own momentum away from the asteroid, it gave Dimorphos an explosive thrust — what scientists call the momentum enhancement factor. More debris being kicked out means more oomph. According to the new research, the momentum enhancement factor for DART’s impact was about two, meaning that the debris loss doubled the punch created by the spacecraft alone. Earlier research showed that the smaller asteroid’s 12-hour orbital period around the nearly half-mile-wide (805-meter-wide) Didymos shortened by 33 minutes . The new study shows the impact ejected so much material from the binary system that it also changed the binary’s orbital period around the Sun by 0.15 seconds. “The change in the binary system’s orbital speed was about 11.7 microns per second, or 1.7 inches per hour,” said Rahil Makadia, the study’s lead author at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “Over time, such a small change in an asteroid’s motion can make the difference between a hazardous object hitting or missing our planet.” Although Didymos was not on an impact trajectory with Earth and it was impossible for the DART mission to put it on one, that change in orbital speed underscores the role spacecraft — aka kinetic impactors in this context — could play if a potentially hazardous asteroid is found to be on a collision course in the future. The key is detecting near-Earth objects far enough in advance to send a kinetic impactor. To that end, NASA is building the Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission. Managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, this next-generation space survey telescope is the first to be built for planetary defense. The mission will seek out some of the hardest-to-find near-Earth objects, such as dark asteroids and comets that don’t reflect much visible light. How they did it To prove DART had a detectable influence on both asteroids — not just on the smaller Dimorphos — the researchers needed to measure Didymos’ orbit around the Sun to exquisite precision. So, in addition to making radar and other ground-based observations of the asteroid, they tracked stellar occultations, which occur when the asteroid passes exactly in front of a star, causing the pinpoint of light to blink out for a fraction of a second. This technique provides extremely precise measurements of the asteroid’s speed, shape, and position. Measuring stellar occultations is challenging: Astronomers have to be in the right place at the right time with several observing stations, sometimes miles apart, to track the predicted path of the asteroid in front of a specific star. The team relied on volunteer astronomers around the globe who recorded 22 stellar occultations between October 2022 and March 2025. “When combined with years of existing ground-based observations, these stellar occultation observations became key in helping us calculate how DART had changed Didymos’ orbit,” said study co-lead Steve Chesley, a senior research scientist at JPL. “This work is highly weather dependent and often requires travel to remote regions with no guarantee of success. This result would not have been possible without the dedication of dozens of volunteer occultation observers around the world.” Studying changes in Didymos’ motion also helped the researchers calculate the densities of both asteroids. Dimorphos is slightly less dense than previously thought, supporting the theory that it formed from rocky debris shed by a rapidly spinning Didymos. This loose material eventually clumped together to form Dimorphos, a “rubble pile” asteroid. More about DART The DART spacecraft was designed, built, and operated by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, which oversees the agency’s ongoing efforts in planetary defense. It was humanity’s first mission to intentionally move a celestial object. For more information about the DART mission visit: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/dart/ Media Contacts Ian J. O’Neill Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-354-2649 [email protected] Karen Fox / Molly Wasser NASA Headquarters, Washington 240-285-5155 / 240-419-1732 [email protected] / [email protected] 2025-015 Explore More 1 min read Near-Earth Asteroids as of December 2025 Each month, NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office releases a monthly update featuring the most recent… Article 3 months ago 8 min read Sugars, ‘Gum,’ Stardust Found in NASA’s Asteroid Bennu Samples Article 3 months ago 3 min read Regions on Asteroid Explored by NASA’s Lucy Mission Get Official Names The IAU (International Astronomical Union), a global naming authority for celestial objects, has approved official… Article 6 months ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Planetary Defense – DART NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), built and managed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) for NASA’s Planetary… Asteroids Introduction Asteroids, sometimes called minor planets, are rocky, airless remnants left over from the early formation of our solar system… Didymos & Dimorphos Overview Asteroid Didymos and its small moonlet Dimorphos make up what’s called a binary asteroid system – meaning the small… NEO Surveyor Overview Building on the success of NASA’s NEOWISE space telescope, the agency’s NEO Surveyor will be the first spacecraft built… Was this page helpful? Δ Was this page helpful? Yes No ×