Morphology of ejecta features from the impact on asteroid Dimorphos

Fabio Ferrari (), Paolo Panicucci, Gianmario Merisio, Carmine Giordano, Mattia Pugliatti, Jian-Yang Li, Eugene G. Fahnestock, Sabina D. Raducan, Martin Jutzi, Stefania Soldini, Masatoshi Hirabayashi, Colby C. Merrill, Patrick Michel, Fernando Moreno, Gonzalo Tancredi, Jessica M. Sunshine, Jens Ormö, Isabel Herreros, Harrison Agrusa, Ozgur Karatekin, Yun Zhang, Nancy L. Chabot, Andrew F. Cheng, Derek C. Richardson, Andrew S. Rivkin, Adriano Campo Bagatin, Tony L. Farnham, Stavro Ivanovski, Alice Lucchetti, Maurizio Pajola, Alessandro Rossi, Daniel J. Scheeres and Filippo Tusberti
Additional contact information
Fabio Ferrari: Politecnico di Milano
Paolo Panicucci: Politecnico di Milano
Gianmario Merisio: Politecnico di Milano
Carmine Giordano: Politecnico di Milano
Mattia Pugliatti: Politecnico di Milano
Jian-Yang Li: Sun Yat-sen University
Eugene G. Fahnestock: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
Sabina D. Raducan: University of Bern
Martin Jutzi: University of Bern
Stefania Soldini: University of Liverpool
Masatoshi Hirabayashi: Georgia Institute of Technology
Colby C. Merrill: Cornell University
Patrick Michel: Laboratoire Lagrange
Fernando Moreno: Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, CSIC
Gonzalo Tancredi: Facultad de Ciencias
Jessica M. Sunshine: University of Maryland
Jens Ormö: Centro de Astrobiologia (CAB), CSIC-INTA
Isabel Herreros: Centro de Astrobiologia (CAB), CSIC-INTA
Harrison Agrusa: Laboratoire Lagrange
Ozgur Karatekin: Royal Observatory of Belgium
Yun Zhang: University of Michigan
Nancy L. Chabot: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Andrew F. Cheng: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Derek C. Richardson: University of Maryland
Andrew S. Rivkin: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Adriano Campo Bagatin: IUFACyT—DFISTS. Universidad de Alicante
Tony L. Farnham: University of Maryland
Stavro Ivanovski: INAF—Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste
Alice Lucchetti: INAF-OAPD, Astronomical Observatory of Padova
Maurizio Pajola: INAF-OAPD, Astronomical Observatory of Padova
Alessandro Rossi: IFAC-CNR
Daniel J. Scheeres: University of Colorado Boulder
Filippo Tusberti: INAF-OAPD, Astronomical Observatory of Padova

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract Hypervelocity impacts play a significant role in the evolution of asteroids, causing material to be ejected and partially reaccreted. However, the dynamics and evolution of ejected material in a binary asteroid system have never been observed directly. Observations of Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) impact on asteroid Dimorphos have revealed features on a scale of thousands of kilometers, including curved ejecta streams and a tail bifurcation originating from the Didymos system. Here we show that these features result naturally from the dynamical interaction of the ejecta with the binary system and solar radiation pressure. These mechanisms may be used to constrain the orbit of a secondary body, or to investigate the binary nature of an asteroid. Also, they may reveal breakup or fission events in active asteroids, and help determine the asteroid’s properties following an impact event. In the case of DART, our findings suggest that Dimorphos is a very weak, rubble-pile asteroid, with an ejecta mass estimated to be in the range of (1.1-5.5)×107 kg.

Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-56551-0 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-56551-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-56551-0

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().