In September 2022, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission successfully slammed into the side of asteroid moonlet Dimorphos. Initial data from the event indicated that DART had successfully altered the orbit of Dimorphos and achieved its primary mission goal — to assess how much a spacecraft could deflect an asteroid through a transfer of momentum.
However, data analysis didn’t stop, and DART’s science team has released new results and information on why DART was so effective in changing Dimorphos’ orbit and the origins of Dimorphos and its binary asteroid system.