NASA's DART Asteroid Crash Really Messed Up Its Space Rock Target

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Rogue asteroids, to put it simply, pose a threat to Earth. Though there hasn't been a cataclysmic event in about 65 million years, that's not to say there haven't been nail-biting moments during space rock flybys ⁘ in 2013, for instance, the Chelyabinsk asteroid slammed into Earth's atmosphere "blazing like a second sun" and sending shockwaves through the surrounding area.

Space agencies around the world understandably want to be prepared. To this end, NASA launched the Double Asteroid Redirection Test ( DART ) spacecraft in 2022, its first mission dedicated to demonstrating asteroid deflection through kinetic impact. DART successfully collided with a near-Earth asteroid called Dimorphos, which is part of a binary system as it orbits a larger asteroid named Didymos . Lots of incredible information has been gleaned from this impact already, and we just got a little more. According to a paper published this year about the event, DART created a large crater in Dimorphos, in fact reshaping the rock so dramatically it derailed from its original progression.

"For the most part, our original pre-impact predictions about how DART would change the way Didymos and its moon move in space were correct," Derek Richardson, a professor of astronomy at the University of Maryland and a DART investigation working group lead, said in a statement . "But there are some unexpected findings that help provide a better picture of how asteroids and other small bodies form and evolve over time."

One surprise was just how much DART was able to alter Dimorphos. Prior to the collision, the asteroid was oblate, meaning it was somewhat flattened or squished along one axis, likely due to its own rotation or gravitational effects.

After the collision, Dimorphos' shape became prolate, meaning the asteroid was stretched along its axis, making it longer in one direction. The impact likely caused this elongation by redistributing the asteroid's mass and altering its rotational dynamics.