DART

DART was NASA’s demonstration mission for changing an asteroid’s motion by kinetic impact.[1]

History

The collision with Dimorphos took place on September 26, 2022.[1]

Findings

Dimorphos is the smaller member of a binary asteroid system with Didymos.[2] Astronomers measured Dimorphos's orbital period at 11 hours 23 minutes after the impact, down from 11 hours 55 minutes.[2] ASI assigned LICIACube to observe DART’s impact and image Dimorphos afterward.[3]

Current status

DART completed the first dedicated test of an asteroid deflection method.[1]

Sources

  1. DART | NASA. Licence: facts-only (Track B), no text or images reused. Attribution: NASA.
  2. ESA - Didymos and Dimorphos. Licence: facts-only (Track B), no text reused. Attribution: European Space Agency.
  3. LICIACube | Agenzia Spaziale Italiana. Licence: facts-only (Track B), no text reused. Attribution: Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI).

Evidence as of 2026-11-01.