The First Planetary Defense Test Mission: DART Impact on Asteroid Dimorphos

Explore the groundbreaking Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission in this 50-minute seminar presented by Andrew Cheng, Lead Investigator for DART from Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab. Learn about the successful impact on the asteroid Dimorphos on September 26, 2022, which demonstrated the first-ever measurable alteration of a planetary body's orbit by human intervention. Discover how the kinetic impact changed Dimorphos' orbit period around Didymos by 33±1 minutes and produced massive ejecta streams extending thousands of kilometers. Understand the implications of the mission's success for future planetary defense strategies, including the potential to prevent Earth-bound asteroids through kinetic impact. Gain insights into the momentum transfer effectiveness, which exceeded expectations by 3.61±0.2 times the momentum carried by the DART spacecraft. Delve into the scientific significance of this mission and its validation of kinetic impact as a highly effective method for asteroid deflection.