All the results of the first planetary defense operation are published in the journal Nature, namely the deviation of an asteroid, Dimorphos, by NASA’s Dart probe, which took place on September 26, 2022 while the Italian nanosatellite LiciaCube photographed the event. Three of the five articles dedicated to the results are signed by the Italian researchers of LiciaCube of the Italian Space Agency (ASI), the National Institute of Astrophysics (Inaf), the Institute of Applied Physics part of the National Research Council (Ifac-Cnr), the Polytechnic of Milan, University of Bologna and Parthenope University of Naples.
“The first scientific results of the Dart mission are published today. It was an incredible success and LiciaCube played a key role in witnessing this event, acquiring unique images of great scientific value”, observes LiciaCube scientific coordinator in a note. Elisabetta Dotto, from Inaf. For Angelo Zinzi, scientific director of LiciaCube for ASI, “just over five months after the impact, the images acquired by LiciaCube are confirmed to be a unique source of information to reveal the nature of celestial bodies of great charm and interest like asteroids”. The “all-Italian” mission – he added – was also fundamental in allowing the effectiveness of a technique for the removal of potentially dangerous asteroids to be evaluated for the first time. The work of the scientific team is far from finished and in the next months we expect new publications based only on LiciaCube data”.
For Fabio Ferrari of the Milan Polytechnic, co-author of the research, “Dart represents a historic moment for space exploration” which “has allowed us and will allow us again in the coming months to study the structure and evolutionary history of these bodies heavenly, so close to us but still so little known”.
The studies published in Nature made it possible to determine that the momentum transferred from Dart to the asteroid with the impact itself was lower than that generated by the jet of material lifted from the surface of Dimorphos.
Another publication reports the observations made by the Hubble Space Telescope in the period from 15 minutes up to about 18 days after the impact of the Dart probe ((Double Asteroid Redirection Test). The data reconstruct the movement of the material ejected from the asteroid after the impact and indicate how it was affected by the gravitational interaction exerted by Dimorphos’ companion, Didymos, and by solar radiation pressure.The lower-velocity ejecta dispersed forming a tail. Finally, the images obtained during Dart’s approach to Dimorphos, up to the moment of impact, have also been published, which have made it possible to reconstruct the time sequence, position and nature of the impact site, dimensions and shape of Dimorphos.
Source: Ansa
I am a journalist with over 6 years of experience working in the news industry. I currently work as an author for Global Happenings, and my coverage focuses on Technology news. I have written for various publications, including Reuters, The New York Times and The Guardian.
