Dimorphos
Dimorphos (formal designation (65803) Didymos I; provisional designation S/2003 (65803) 1) is a natural satellite or moon of the near-Earth asteroid 65803 Didymos, with which it forms a binary system. The moon was discovered on 20 November 2003 by Petr Pravec in collaboration with other astronomers worldwide. Dimorphos has a diameter of 177 meters (581 ft) across its longest extent and it was the target of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), a NASA space mission that deliberately collided a spacecraft with the moon on 26 September 2022 to alter its orbit around Didymos. Before the impact by DART, Dimorphos had a shape of an oblate spheroid with a surface covered in boulders but virtually no craters. The moon is thought to have formed when Didymos shed its mass due to its rapid rotation, which formed an orbiting ring of debris that conglomerated into a low-density rubble pile that became Dimorphos today.
High-resolution view of Dimorphos, created by combining the final 10 full-frame images obtained by DART's Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO). Dimorphos is oriented so that its north pole is toward the top of the image. Taken seconds before impact on September 26, 2022. | |
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Petr Pravec et al. |
| Discovery site | Ondřejov Observatory |
| Discovery date | 20 November 2003 |
| Designations | |
Designation | Didymos I |
| Pronunciation | /daɪˈmɔːrfəs/ |
Named after | Greek word for "having two forms" |
| S/2003 (65803) 1 Didymos B "Didymoon" | |
| Orbital characteristics: 28 | |
| Epoch 26 September 2022 23:14:24.183 UTC (JD 2459849.4683355; impact time): 5 : 28 | |
| 1.206±0.035 km (pre-impact): 28 1.144±0.070 km (post-impact): 5 | |
| Eccentricity | ≈0 (pre-impact): 15 0.021±0.014 or 0.0247±0.0002: 16 (post-impact) |
| 11.921473±0.000044 hr (11h 55m 17.3s ± 0.2s; pre-impact): 28 11.3676±0.0014 hr (11h 22m 03.4s ± 5.0s; post-impact) | |
Average orbital speed | 0.177 m/s (pre-impact) |
| Inclination | 169.3°±1.0° with respect to ecliptic |
| Satellite of | 65803 Didymos |
| Physical characteristics: 9 | |
| Dimensions | 177 × 174 × 116 m (± 2 × 4 × 2 m) |
Mean diameter | 151±5 m (volume equivalent) |
| 7.58×104 m2 | |
| Volume | (1.81±0.18)×106 m3 |
| Mass | (1.33±0.30)×109 kg (if density is 0.6–0.7 g/cm3) ≈ 4.3×109 kg (if same density as Didymos): 9 |
Mean density | 0.6–0.7 g/cm3 2.4±0.9 g/cm3 (if same as Didymos): 29 |
| ≈ 11.9 hr (synchronous; pre-impact) chaotic (post-impact) | |
| Albedo | 0.15±0.02: 6 |
Spectral type | S |
| 21.4±0.2 | |
The DART impact reduced Dimorphos's orbital period around Didymos by 33 minutes and ejected over 1 million kilograms (2.2×106 lb) of debris into space, producing a dust plume that temporarily brightened the Didymos system and developed a 10,000-kilometer (6,200 mi)-long dust tail that persisted for several months. The DART impact is predicted to have caused global resurfacing and deformation of Dimorphos's shape, leaving an impact crater several tens of meters in diameter. Post-impact observations of brightness fluctuations within the Didymos system suggest that the impact may have either significantly deformed Dimorphos into an ellipsoidal shape or may have sent it into a chaotically tumbling rotation. If Dimorphos was in a tumbling rotation state, the moon will be subjected to irregular tidal forces by Didymos before it will eventually return to a tidally locked state within several decades. The ESA mission Hera is planned to arrive at the Didymos system in 2026 to further study the effects of DART's impact on Dimorphos.