Asteroid hit by NASA spacecraft is behaving unexpectedly

A highschool instructor and his college students have found that an asteroid hit by a NASA spacecraft, in a take a look at run for saving Earth from a collision, is behaving unexpectedly. The discover may have implications for future planetary defence missions.

On 27 September 2022, NASA deliberately crashed its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft into the asteroid Dimorphos. The aim was to sluggish the area rock’s almost 12-hour orbit round a guardian asteroid, known as Didymos, and …