NASA mission to deflect asteroid size of 'Pyramid of Giza' causes some very unexpected results
NASA are constantly working on a number of projects and missions, though some take more precedent than others.
One of these important missions took place three years ago, when the space organisation decided to slam a spaceship into an asteroid to alter its course.
It ultimately was successful, with NASA correctly predicting that it is possible to redirect celestial objects.
The asteroid known as Dimorphos was approximately the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza, and the impact caused massive boulders to fly off, which were around one to seven metres in size.
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But in a new study published in The Planetary Science Journal, scientists have delved into the lasting impact of pushing these boulders into different directions.
Apparently, it could lead to complications in other asteroid deflection missions carried out by other world space organisations.
What did the paper find?
The paper, published by a large research team headed up by Tony L. Farnham, acknowledges that 'full accounting of the total momentum in all directions' must be carried out, but added that the 'ejecta cone spreads out sideways' and in the direction of the spacecraft.
Analysing the locations of 104 boulders that were imaged by the Light Italian Cubesat for Imaging of Asteroids (LICIACube), following the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), they found that boulders shot away at speeds of up to 116 miles per hour at impact.
Redirecting the asteroid was anticipated, but the direction of the boulders was not as expected.
Writing about the results in the paper, the team explained: "A significant component of the momentum, possibly several times that contributing to the β factor, was carried out perpendicular to Dimorphos’s velocity vector.
"To fully understand the impact’s effect on Dimorphos’s orbit, it is necessary to explore the spatial distribution of the debris field and use it to ascertain the net momentum of all its components," they detailed.
'Something unknown' has occurred
Lead author Farnham said they noticed that the boulders weren't in random positions in space.
The research scientist at University of Maryland's Department of Astronomy explained in a statement that they were instead 'clusters in two pretty distinct groups', with no material elsewhere.
He added: "Which means that something unknown is at work here."
70 percent of ejected objects were found in these debris clusters, which are headed south at high speeds, as they are suspected to be the remains of large boulders that shattered with DART's solar panels.
Jessica Sunshine, another author and a professor of astronomy and geology at UMD, explained: "DART's solar panels likely hit two big boulders, called Atabaque and Bodhran, on the asteroid,
"Evidence suggests that the southern cluster of ejected material is probably made up of fragments from Atabaque, a 3.3-meter-radius boulder."
Significant alteration of the asteroid's course
It was found that the boulders made by the impact had over three times the momentum of the spacecraft that impacted the boulders.
The mission mat have tilted Dimorphos' orbital plane by up to one degree, which would have sent it tumbling through space, as Sunshine spoke about the importance of 'subtleties' like this in the future, especially with asteroids headed for Earth.
"You can think of it as a cosmic pool game. We might miss the pocket if we don't consider all the variables," she highlighted.
Sunshine spoke about the complicated dynamics involved with these missions.
The deputy principal investigator on NASA's Deep Impact mission, she added: "Here, we see that DART hit a surface that was rocky and full of large boulders, resulting in chaotic and filamentary structures in its ejecta patterns.
"Comparing these two missions side-by-side gives us this insight into how different types of celestial bodies respond to impacts, which is crucial to ensuring that a planetary defense mission is successful."
The team say that more analysis the momentum of the surface boulders is required to better inform them on future events, as Farnham spoke of the changes in physics that must be considered.
This will have to wait, as the European Space Agency are launching their Hera mission, which will arrive at the asteroid in 2026 to take a deeper look at the impact.
Joshua Nair