Asteroid behaving unexpectedly after Nasa's deliberate Dart crash (www.bbc.co.uk)

submitted 1 year ago by ooli@lemmy.world to c/space@lemmy.world

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[-] RedditWanderer@lemmy.world 26 points 1 year ago

"Behaving unexpectedly" means:

However, using their school telescope, a team of children and their teacher Jonathan Swift at Thacher School in California have found that more than a month after the collision, Dimorphos' orbit continuously slowed after impact... which is unusual and unexpected.

As reported in the New Scientist, the team presented their findings at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

After discovering the unusual behaviour of Dimorphos, it's likely that Nasa will have to factor in the high school's findings, if they ever launch another asteroid redirection mission in the future.

[-] Rhaedas@kbin.social 34 points 1 year ago

Amateur observers contribute data all the time, so great that this might spark continued interest for some of those kids. I'm sure their data along with further observations by bigger scopes, as well as the HERA probe planned to revisits the asteroid pair will give better insight into the complex physics that occurred.

I'm guessing the speculation of a now tumbling satellite that has varying pull because of its wobble might be the best one. It would be a real surprise if we found out that the DART probe hit precise dead center of mass and had a perfect vector change with no oddities.

[-] randomaccount43543@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

School children??

[-] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago

i was more surprised about Jonathan Swift making a comeback after the better part of 300 years

[-] ivanafterall@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

Are we sure these were children and not lilliputian astronomers?

[-] anonionfinelyminced@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Tom Swift and his ~~Nuclear~~ Atomic Asteroid Catcher

[-] Sylver@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

As opposed to Home Children

[-] queermunist@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

"Shit I think we hit something! Pull over."

[-] WarmSoda@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

Throws it back at us

this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2023

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