1. Light Curves and Colors of the Ejecta from Dimorphos after the DART Impact
- Author
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Graykowski, Ariel, Lambert, Ryan A., Marchis, Franck, Cazeneuve, Dorian, Dalba, Paul A., Esposito, Thomas M., Peluso, Daniel O'Conner, Sgro, Lauren A., Blaclard, Guillaume, Borot, Antonin, Malvache, Arnaud, Marfisi, Laurent, Powell, Tyler M., Huet, Patrice, Limagne, Matthieu, Payet, Bruno, Clarke, Colin, Murabana, Susan, Owen, Daniel Chu, Wasilwa, Ronald, Fukui, Keiichi, Goto, Tateki, Guillet, Bruno, Huth, Patrick, Ishiyama, Satoshi, Kukita, Ryuichi, Mitchell, Mike, Primm, Michael, Randolph, Justus, Rivett, Darren A., Ryno, Matthew, Shimizu, Masao, Toullec, Jean-Pierre, Will, Stefan, Yue, Wai-Chun, Camilleri, Michael, Graykowski, Kathy, Janetzke, Ron, Janke, Des, Kardel, Scott, Loose, Margaret, Pickering, John W., Smith, Barton A., and Transom, Ian M.
- Subjects
Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics - Abstract
On 26 September 2022 the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft impacted Dimorphos, a satellite of the asteroid 65803 Didymos. Because it is a binary system, it is possible to determine how much the orbit of the satellite changed, as part of a test of what is necessary to deflect an asteroid that might threaten Earth with an impact. In nominal cases, pre-impact predictions of the orbital period reduction ranged from ~8.8 - 17.2 minutes. Here we report optical observations of Dimorphos before, during and after the impact, from a network of citizen science telescopes across the world. We find a maximum brightening of 2.29 $\pm$ 0.14 mag upon impact. Didymos fades back to its pre-impact brightness over the course of 23.7 $\pm$ 0.7 days. We estimate lower limits on the mass contained in the ejecta, which was 0.3 - 0.5% Dimorphos' mass depending on the dust size. We also observe a reddening of the ejecta upon impact., Comment: Accepted by Nature
- Published
- 2023
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