NASA DART Imagery Produced with GBT Data Shows Changed Orbit of Target Asteroid

Analysis of data obtained over the past two weeks by NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) investigation team shows the spacecraft’s kinetic impact with its target asteroid, Dimorphos, successfully altered the asteroid’s orbit. This marks humanity’s first time purposely changing the motion of a celestial object and the first full-scale demonstration of asteroid deflection technology. Images such as the below helped scientists understand the orbit change resulting from DART’s impact.

The yellow box shows the asteroid Didymos. The images are views of the Didymos and Dimorphos binary asteroid system obtained from radar facilities at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Goldstone planetary radar in California and the National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia. Shown at left are Oct. 4, 2022, observations from Goldstone observations; at right are combined Goldstone and Green Bank observations from Oct. 9, 2022. Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/JPL/NASA JPL Goldstone Planetary Radar/National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Observatory.

“We’re using the Green Bank Telescope, working with JPL’s Goldstone telescope, to provide radar observations to determine the new orbit of Dimorphos around Didymos. From optical observations we know the impact of the DART spacecraft ejected dust from Dimorphos, so we expect the orbit to have changed measurably. The two week radar campaign with the GBT and JPL’s Goldstone telescope will determine the new orbit of Dimorphos,” shares Green Bank Observatory scientist Toney Minter.

Hear Toney talk to BBC Sounds: Science In Action about the GBT and DART (jump to 10 minutes in.)

The green circle shows the location of the Dimorphos asteroid, which orbits the larger asteroid, Didymos, seen here as the bright line across the middle of the images. The blue circle shows where Dimorphos would have been had its orbit not changed due to NASA’s DART mission purposefully impacting the smaller asteroid on Sept. 26, 2022. The images show the Didymos and Dimorphos binary asteroid system obtained from radar facilities at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Goldstone planetary radar in California and the National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia. Shown at left are Oct. 4, 2022, observations from Goldstone observations; at right are combined Goldstone and Green Bank observations from Oct. 9, 2022.
Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/JPL/NASA JPL Goldstone Planetary Radar/National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Observatory

“The Green Bank Observatory is very excited to contribute to this radar measurement in support of NASA’s DART mission. The Green Bank Telescope’s large collecting area makes it extremely sensitive and a prime receiving station to detect these faint radar echoes. Given the huge dust cloud and trail kicked up by the impact, DART clearly had a dramatic effect on poor little Dimorphos. These radar measurements will be key to determine just how dramatic the event really was by sensing changes in its orbit around Didymos and definitively establishing its deflection,” adds Jim Jackson, Green Bank Observatory director.

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Find many more images shared here, in NASA’s original press release.