this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2023
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
However, a teacher and his class studying the rock have now discovered that since the collision, it has moved in a strange and unexpected way.
By crashing into the smaller asteroid, the Dart mission successfully altered Dimorphos' orbit by "tens of metres".
Dart, which stands for Double Asteroid Redirection Test, used a spacecraft around the size of a fridge.
By successfully crashing directly into Dimorphos, Nasa was testing if it could use similar methods to knock an asteroid off course, if one is in danger of hitting the Earth.
After discovering the unusual behaviour of Dimorphos, it's likely that Nasa will have to factor in the high school's findings, if they ever launch another asteroid redirection mission in the future.
The European Space Agency is launching a mission called Hera, which will arrive at Dimorphos in 2026 and could reveal more details as to what happened to the asteroid following the impact.
The original article contains 360 words, the summary contains 152 words. Saved 58%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!