However, a team of scientists led by researchers from the Applied Physics Laboratory Johns Hopkins University in the United States It analyzed the scientific and engineering data following the crash in detail. In the weeks following the DART crash with Dimorphos, It focuses on measuring the momentum transfer from a collision with a target asteroid at a speed of 22,530 kilometers per hour. The team estimates that the DART crash resulted in the ejection of more than 1 million kilograms of rock dust into space. That would be like a full six or seven train carriages by comparison. With this information, the team also gained new information regarding the composition of the asteroid Dimorphos. Characteristics of the velocity and motion of the ejected oxygen cloud, obtained with telescope observations and images from the Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids (LICIACube) as part of the DART mission.
Scientists revealed that Momentum transfer is one of the most important things that can be measured. Because it is the information needed to develop the mission of the Impactor. To send to divert asteroids that have the right to threaten the world. Understanding how space collisions change an asteroid’s momentum. It is thus key to designing mitigation strategies for global defense scenarios.
Credit : NASA/Johns Hopkins APL
