Contains:  Solar system body or event
Didymos Time Lapse, Steven Bellavia

Didymos Time Lapse

Didymos Time Lapse, Steven Bellavia

Didymos Time Lapse

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Description

NASA's DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission, was the first ever attempt at planetary defense against potentially hazardous objects.

The DART spacecraft impacted the smaller moonlet asteroid, Dimorphos, which orbits the larger asteroid Didymos (which means "twin" in Greek)

The images used in the time lpase were taken several days after Dart's 6.6 kilometers per second impact, which was at 7:14 p.m. EDT on Sept. 26, 2022.

Note: Dimorphos is too faint to see in these images.  However, it transits in front of Didymos every 11.9 hours, casuing a change in brightness.  So if the orbit was indeed changed by the DART spacecraft, the transit frequency will also change. So now we wait to see if Dart was successful.

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Imaged with APT