Characterization of the Ejecta from the NASA/DART Impact on Dimorphos: Observations and Monte Carlo Models

Collapse authors list.
Moreno, Fernando, Bagatin, Adriano Campo, Tancredi, Gonzalo, Li, Jian-Yang, Rossi, Alessandro, Ferrari, Fabio, Hirabayashi, Masatoshi, Fahnestock, Eugene, Maury, Alain, Sandness, Robert et al (show 19 more authors) , Rivkin, Andrew S, Cheng, Andy, Farnham, Tony L, Soldini, Stefania ORCID: 0000-0003-3121-3845, Giordano, Carmine, Merisio, Gianmario, Panicucci, Paolo, Pugliatti, Mattia, Castro-Tirado, Alberto J, Fernandez-Garcia, Emilio, Perez-Garcia, Ignacio, Ivanovski, Stavro, Penttila, Antti, Kolokolova, Ludmilla, Licandro, Javier, Munoz, Olga, Gray, Zuri, Ortiz, Jose L and Lin, Zhong-Yi (2023) Characterization of the Ejecta from the NASA/DART Impact on Dimorphos: Observations and Monte Carlo Models PLANETARY SCIENCE JOURNAL, 4 (8). 138-. ISSN 2632-3338, 2632-3338

PDF DART_Tail_REV (7).pdf - Author Accepted Manuscript Download (8MB) | Preview

Abstract

The NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft successfully crashed on Dimorphos, the secondary component of the binary (65803) Didymos system. Following the impact, a large dust cloud was released, and a long-lasting dust tail developed. We have extensively monitored the dust tail from the ground and the Hubble Space Telescope. We provide a characterization of the ejecta dust properties, i.e., particle size distribution and ejection speeds, ejection geometric parameters, and mass, by combining both observational data sets and using Monte Carlo models of the observed dust tail. The size distribution function that best fits the imaging data is a broken power law having a power index of –2.5 for particles of r ≤ 3 mm and –3.7 for larger particles. The particles range in size from 1 μm up to 5 cm. The ejecta is characterized by two components, depending on velocity and ejection direction. The northern component of the double tail, observed since 2022 October 8, might be associated with a secondary ejection event from impacting debris on Didymos, although is also possible that this feature results from the binary system dynamics alone. The lower limit to the total dust mass ejected is estimated at ∼6 × 10⁶ kg, half of this mass being ejected to interplanetary space.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	5109 Space Sciences, 51 Physical Sciences
Divisions:	Faculty of Science & Engineering > School of Engineering
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	20 Feb 2024 08:50
Last Modified:	23 May 2026 07:45
DOI:	10.3847/PSJ/ace827
Related Websites:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3178792
Disclaimer:	The University of Liverpool is not responsible for content contained on other websites from links within repository metadata. Please contact us if you notice anything that appears incorrect or inappropriate.