The Planetary Science Journal (Jan 2023)
Optical Monitoring of the Didymos–Dimorphos Asteroid System with the Danish Telescope around the DART Mission Impact
- Agata Rożek,
- Colin Snodgrass,
- Uffe G. Jørgensen,
- Petr Pravec,
- Mariangela Bonavita,
- Markus Rabus,
- Elahe Khalouei,
- Penélope Longa-Peña,
- Martin J. Burgdorf,
- Abbie Donaldson,
- Daniel Gardener,
- Dennis Crake,
- Sedighe Sajadian,
- Valerio Bozza,
- Jesper Skottfelt,
- Martin Dominik,
- J. Fynbo,
- Tobias C. Hinse,
- Markus Hundertmark,
- Sohrab Rahvar,
- John Southworth,
- Jeremy Tregloan-Reed,
- Mike Kretlow,
- Paolo Rota,
- Nuno Peixinho,
- Michael Andersen,
- Flavia Amadio,
- Daniela Barrios-López,
- Nora Soledad Castillo Baeza
Affiliations
- Agata Rożek
- ORCiD
- Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh , Royal Observatory, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK ; [email protected]
- Colin Snodgrass
- ORCiD
- Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh , Royal Observatory, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK ; [email protected]
- Uffe G. Jørgensen
- ORCiD
- Centre for ExoLife Sciences, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen , Øster Voldgade 5, DK-1350 Copenhagen, Denmark
- Petr Pravec
- ORCiD
- Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic , Fričova 298, Ondřejov CZ-25165, Czech Republic
- Mariangela Bonavita
- ORCiD
- Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh , Royal Observatory, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK ; [email protected]
- Markus Rabus
- ORCiD
- Departamento de Matemática y Física Aplicadas, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción , Alonso de Rivera 2850, Concepción, Chile
- Elahe Khalouei
- ORCiD
- Astronomy Research Center, Research Institute of Basic Sciences, Seoul National University , 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea
- Penélope Longa-Peña
- ORCiD
- Centro de Astronomía, Universidad de Antofagasta , Av. Angamos 601, Antofagasta, Chile
- Martin J. Burgdorf
- ORCiD
- Universität Hamburg , Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences, Department of Earth Sciences, Meteorological Institute, Bundesstraße 55, D-20146 Hamburg, Germany
- Abbie Donaldson
- ORCiD
- Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh , Royal Observatory, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK ; [email protected]
- Daniel Gardener
- ORCiD
- Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh , Royal Observatory, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK ; [email protected]
- Dennis Crake
- Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh , Royal Observatory, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK ; [email protected]
- Sedighe Sajadian
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Isfahan University of Technology , Isfahan 84156-83111, Iran
- Valerio Bozza
- ORCiD
- Dipartimento di Fisica “E.R. Caianiello,” Università di Salerno , Via Giovanni Paolo II 132, I-84084 Fisciano, Italy; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare , Sezione di Napoli, Strada Comunale Cinthia, I-80126 Napoli, Italy
- Jesper Skottfelt
- Centre for Electronic Imaging, School of Physical Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK
- Martin Dominik
- ORCiD
- University of St Andrews , Centre for Exoplanet Science, SUPA School of Physics & Astronomy, North Haugh, St Andrews KY16 9SS, UK
- J. Fynbo
- ORCiD
- Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen , Blegdamsvej 17, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
- Tobias C. Hinse
- ORCiD
- University of Southern Denmark , Department of Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy, Campusvej 55, DK-5230 Odense M, Denmark
- Markus Hundertmark
- Astronomisches Rechen-Institut, Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg (ZAH) , D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany
- Sohrab Rahvar
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Sharif University of Technology , P.O. Box 11155-9161, Tehran, Iran
- John Southworth
- ORCiD
- Astrophysics Group, Keele University , Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UK
- Jeremy Tregloan-Reed
- ORCiD
- Instituto de Astronomia y Ciencias Planetarias de Atacama, Universidad de Atacama , Copayapu 485, Copiapo, Chile
- Mike Kretlow
- ORCiD
- Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía , Granada, Spain
- Paolo Rota
- Dipartimento di Fisica “E.R. Caianiello,” Università di Salerno , Via Giovanni Paolo II 132, I-84084 Fisciano, Italy; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare , Sezione di Napoli, Strada Comunale Cinthia, I-80126 Napoli, Italy
- Nuno Peixinho
- ORCiD
- Instituto de Astrofísica e Cêcias do Espaço , Departamento de Física, Universidade de Coimbra, PT3040-004 Coimbra, Portugal
- Michael Andersen
- Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen , Blegdamsvej 17, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
- Flavia Amadio
- Centre for ExoLife Sciences, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen , Øster Voldgade 5, DK-1350 Copenhagen, Denmark
- Daniela Barrios-López
- Centro de Astronomía, Universidad de Antofagasta , Av. Angamos 601, Antofagasta, Chile
- Nora Soledad Castillo Baeza
- Centro de Astronomía, Universidad de Antofagasta , Av. Angamos 601, Antofagasta, Chile
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/PSJ/ad0a64
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 4,
no. 12
p. 236
Abstract
The NASA’s Double-Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) was a unique planetary defence and technology test mission, the first of its kind. The main spacecraft of the DART mission impacted the target asteroid Dimorphos, a small moon orbiting the asteroid Didymos (65803), on 2022 September 26. The impact brought up a mass of ejecta which, together with the direct momentum transfer from the collision, caused an orbital period change of 33 ± 1 minutes, as measured by ground-based observations. We report here the outcome of the optical monitoring campaign of the Didymos system from the Danish 1.54 m telescope at La Silla around the time of impact. The observations contributed to the determination of the changes in the orbital parameters of the Didymos–Dimorphos system, as reported by Thomas et al., but in this paper we focus on the ejecta produced by the DART impact. We present photometric measurements from which we remove the contribution from the Didymos–Dimorphos system using an H – G photometric model. Using two photometric apertures we determine the fading rate of the ejecta to be 0.115 ± 0.003 mag day ^−1 (in a 2″ aperture) and 0.086 ± 0.003 mag day ^−1 (5″) over the first week postimpact. After about 8 days postimpact we note the fading slows down to 0.057 ± 0.003 mag day ^−1 (2″ aperture) and 0.068 ± 0.002 mag day ^−1 (5″). We include deep-stacked images of the system to illustrate the ejecta evolution during the first 18 days, noting the emergence of dust tails formed from ejecta pushed in the antisolar direction, and measuring the extent of the particles ejected Sunward to be at least 4000 km.
Keywords