Aster › Space program › Dimorphos
Dimorphos
Position on the route: 15/130 · level needed 34 · journey (Mk0 engine) 6.0 h
By the numbers
| Diameter | ≈ 160 m |
|---|---|
| Year | 11 h 23 min (after DART) |
| Distance | ≈ 1.2 km |
| Found | 2003 |
The story
Dimorphos is Didymos’s small moon and the first body whose orbit humanity has changed on purpose. It was inferred from the light curve in 2003; its name means ‘two-formed’, because nobody saw its face before DART. DART’s last images before impact showed a rubble-pile surface.
The impact shortened the orbit by 32 minutes against a success bar of only 73 seconds. The surplus came from the extra push of the material the impact threw off. For planetary defence, the ‘kinetic impactor’ method works.
Missions
- DART (NASA, 2022): the impact
- Hera (ESA): the follow-up survey, 2026
Colony note
No colony; only an observation point.
What probes bring back
- The DART impact shortened the orbit by 32 minutes; ESA’s Hera craft (launched in 2024) will study the crater and the interior up close.
- A rubble pile about 160 m across; the impact threw off more than a million kilograms.