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Debris from the impact of NASA’s DART spacecraft with the asteroid Dimorphos could reach Earth and Mars, astronomers have concluded. However, although the debris may have resulted in meteors on Mars, we are unlikely to see a meteor shower on Earth.
DART, the Double Asteroid Redirect Test, slammed into Dimorphos on September 26, 2022, with the intention of testing whether the kinetic impact of a potentially hazardous asteroid orbit could one day leave Earth. The test passed with flying colors: Dimorphos was pushed into a shorter orbit around its parent asteroid, Didimos. (Dimorphos and Didymos were never a threat to our planet; they were just the guinea pigs in this test).
The impact, which left our crater in Dimmorphos, also ejected a large amount of debris. This ejecta created a cone of escaping material that was observed up close and personal by small cubesat called LLICIACube (Italian Lightweight Cubesat for Asteroid Imaging), which traveled with DART to see the aftermath of the impact. In particular, LCIACube observed particles one micron (that’s one millionth of a meter) and larger being ejected at velocities of up to 500 meters (1,640 feet) per second.
Meanwhile, the Large Array Survey Telescope (LAST) and the 28-inch telescope at the Wise Observatory, both in Israel, as well as NASA Swift The satellite’s ultraviolet and optical telescopes revealed that additional microscopic particles had been released that traveled much faster, between 1,400 and 1,800 meters (about 5,000 to 5,900 feet) per second.
Related: The crash of NASA’s DART asteroid put a huge dent in its space rock goal
A team led by Eloy Peña-Asensio from the Politecnico di Milano in Italy and Michael Küppers, who is a project scientist for the European Space Agency Hera a follow-up mission to DART that will be launched towards Didymos and Dimorphos in October, they have now modeled how that debris will spread throughout the interior. solar system. The team’s calculations are based on the gravity of Didymos and Dimorphos, the sun, mercury, VenusEarth, Mars, Jupiter as well as the moonall the impact of the debris’ trajectory.
Their main simulation modeled 3 million particles, divided into size groups of 10 centimeters (3.9 inches), 0.5 cm (0.2 in) and 30 microns with velocities of up to 500 meters (1,640 feet) per second based on observations from LCIACube.
“Our results show that, given the geometry of the ejecta cone and the observed maximum ejecta velocity, there are plausible ways to reach this material on Mars,” Peña-Asensio told Space.com. “This is our most confident conclusion.”
The second simulation was modeled around the higher ejecta velocities suggested by Swift and the ground-based observatories.
“For the second simulation, these faster ejecta are expected to consist mostly of sub-micrometer particles that would not generate meteors when entering an atmosphere.”
Crucially, the main simulation showed that the slower traveling particles could reach Mars within 13 years of the DART impact, meaning by 2035. Their delivery to the red planet helps the binary Didymos-Dimorphos orbit around the sun. them. the orbit of Mars. That means the ejecta doesn’t have to travel as fast or as far to reach Mars as it does to reach Earth. In fact, the main simulation showed that none of these slower-moving particles will reach Earth.
However, the second simulation is a different story. It suggests that fast-moving ejecta could reach Mars within 5 years of the DART impact, and on Earth as early as 7 years after the impact, in 2029. But, due to the small size of the particles this reaches the Earth, they would not create. Meteor shower visible. This would only happen if some larger particles somehow sneaked through.
“In our main simulation, no particles reach Earth at velocities of up to 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) per second,” said Peña-Asensio. “Only particles ejected at velocities of 1,500 meters (4,900 feet) per second or higher reach Earth, and this occurs exclusively in the secondary simulation.”
“However,” said the researcher, “if these particles were slightly larger or if LICIACube missed macroscopic particles at these speeds, they could reach Earth and produce detectable meteors. Only future meteor observing campaigns can verify this.”
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The simulations were even able to show where the ejecta that came to Earth and Mars would end up. The debris that could create a meteor shower on Mars in 2035 comes from the northern part of the impact site, but it is from the southwest side of the crater that the small fast-moving particles that could reach Earth would come.
“DART-like impacts and the ejecta resulting from the constant exchange of matter between planetary bodies, asteroids, Comets and other heavenly things,” said Peña-Asensio.
So, while Earth’s skies probably won’t light up with a meteor shower from the Dimorphos debris, the Trainer Mars he might enjoy another decade’s display of shooting stars.
The research is available as a preprint on the paper store onXiv.
