Asteroid lost 1 million kilograms after collision with DART spacecraft

Studies reveal final moments before NASA probe crashed into an asteroid.
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  1. Alexandra Witze
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Last September, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft smashed into an asteroid, deliberately altering the rock’s trajectory through space in a first test of planetary defence. Now scientists have deconstructed the collision and its aftermath — and learnt just how successful humanity’s punch at the cosmos really was.

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Nature 615, 195 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00601-4

Updates & Corrections

  • Clarification 02 March 2023: This story has been updated to clarify that the asteroid changed colour from red to blue after impact. Frank Marchis’s affiliation has also been amended.

References

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