The Faculty of Physics cordially invites you to the Astronomical Observatory Institute seminar this Thursday at 13:00. The lecture on 'Planetary defence in action: the impact of DART' will be delivered by Dr Agata Różek from the University of Edinburgh.
"On 26th September 2022 NASA conducted the first asteroid deflection test using the DART spacecraft. The probe hit a small moon Dimorphos orbiting a near-Earth asteroid Didymos. One of the principal mission aims was to change the orbital period of Dimorphos in the asteroid system in a measurable way, and it was a smashing success. The collision aftermath was closely monitored from space and ground, including by the observers from Edinburgh’s Institute for Astronomy. We used the Danish 1.54m telescope in Chile, the VLT, and a brand-new telescope in Kenya. The global observing campaign was designed for determining the period change and monitoring post-impact ejecta. The orbital change was measured to be -33±1 min and confirmed with two different observational methods: optical observations and Doppler-delay radar imaging. I’ll present an overview of the DART mission and Edinburgh’s contribution to the Didymos/Dimorphos observing campaign."
More information is available on the AOI website.