A school teacher and his students have discovered that an asteroid deliberately hit by a Nasa spacecraft is behaving in a weird way.
  • @RedditWanderer
    26•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
      34•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.