Smashing a spacecraft into a binary asteroid system has managed to alter its path around the sun, a new analysis reveals

A 2022 NASA mission changed the orbit of the asteroid Dimorphos around its companion. New data shows their joint orbit around the sun also changed.

In a pioneering achievement for planetary defense, NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission has proven its capability to alter the orbit of a celestial body. A new study published in Science Advances reveals that not only did the DART spacecraft successfully redirect the moonlet Dimorphos in September 2022,

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test, known as DART, did more than shove a small asteroid into a tighter loop around its companion. The September 2022 impact also measurably changed the binary asteroid system’s orbit around the Sun,

On September 26, 2022, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft crashed into a binary asteroid system. By intentionally ramming a probe into the 160-meter-wide moonlet named Dimorphos,