Classroom Aid - 2024 DART Update

here's an update on the historic double asteroid redirection test Dart for short the demonstration showed that a controlled impact could deflect a hazardous asteroid should one ever be on a collision course with Earth a jet propulsion lab study has shown that the shape of asteroid dioros has changed and its orbit around dios has shrunk before the impact dioros had a roughly symmetrical oblate spheroid shape like a squashed ball that is wider than it is tall it had a well-defined circular orbit at a distance of about 1,189 M from dios that's 3,900 ft dimorphus took 11 hours and 55 minutes to complete one loop around damos now its orbit is no longer circular its orbital period is 33 minutes and 15 seconds seconds shorter and the entire shape of the asteroid has changed from a relatively symmetrical object to a triaxial ellipsoid something more like an oblong watermelon