ICE-CSIC astrophysicist Josep María Trigo is part of the scientific team of the DART mission, which tests kinetic impact as a method for changing the orbit of asteroids.

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On 24 November 2021, the Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) was launched into space by NASA and the Johns Hopkins APL laboratory. This mission will collide today at 1:14 am CET with its target, the asteroid Dimorphos, and slightly change its orbit. This is the first planetary defence test mission designed to change the course of an asteroid. The scientific team on this mission includes the astrophysicist Josep Maria Trigo-Rodríguez, from the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) and a member of the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia.

This mission aims to demonstrate the usefulness of the kinetic impact method for deflecting potentially dangerous asteroids. DART will conduct an experiment to change the trajectory and velocity of an asteroid in space using the probe itself for the kinetic impact, without explosive charge. In this way, NASA intends to test planetary defence capabilities should it become necessary to deflect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth in the future.

“With the DART mission we aim to better understand the key aspects that influence the transfer of kinetic momentum by a non-explosive projectile. It is a physics experiment with which we want to know how efficiently a kamikaze projectile excavates a crater in an asteroid, throwing the materials on the asteroid’s surface in the opposite direction to the projectile,” says CSIC astrophysicist Josep M. Trigo-Rodríguez. “The greater the efficiency of this process, the greater the deflection of the asteroid, but there is a multiplicative factor in the impact excavation process that can be better understood from this experiment,” he adds.

The ICE-CSIC’s Meteorites, Minor Bodies and Planetary Sciences research group has personnel with expertise in the physico-chemical properties of the materials that make up the surfaces of asteroids and comets and has made many contributions in this field. “At ICE-CSIC and the IEEC, we have carried out a series of experiments to better understand the mechanical properties of regolith and shock processes in asteroids to help in understanding their nature and mineralogy,” says Trigo. “Asteroids have a diverse structure that is the result of continuous bombardment by projectiles since their formation. This makes deflecting them a major scientific and technological challenge,” he says.

The DART target is 11 million kilometres from Earth and is the binary asteroid system of Didymos (780 metres in diameter) and Dimorphos (160 metres in diameter), which orbits around Didymos. Neither currently poses a threat to our planet, although it is classified as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid. Its orbit has been carefully studied since its discovery in 1996. Moreover, Didymos is considered a prototype of the rocky bodies that the Earth might have to face in the future.

Upon impact with Dimorphos, DART will transfer its kinetic momentum by slightly shortening the asteroid’s orbit. The DART mission research team will quantify the efficiency of crater excavation by studying the satellite’s new period of revolution by studying the photometric light curve, using some of the world’s largest telescopes. It will also compare the results of the kinetic impact of DART against Dimorphos with computer simulations of kinetic asteroid impacts. In this way, the team will be able to assess the effectiveness of this mitigation approach, as well as the accuracy of the simulations to see how closely they reflect the behaviour of a real asteroid.

In scientific papers prior to the DART spacecraft impact, he has contributed to predicting the nature and properties of Dimorphos’ formative materials, which are key to understanding the consequences of DART’s impact with it. “We are also awaiting optical and spectral observations from DART and its LICIACube cubesat to assist in their interpretation. This robotic device will hit violently an asteroid whose internal structure is unknown, so the final scenario is open,” says Trigo.

CSIC participates in the first mission to deflect the trajectory of a potentially dangerous asteroid.

ICE-CSIC astrophysicist Josep María Trigo is part of the scientific team of the DART mission, which tests kinetic impact as a method for changing the orbit of asteroids.

On 24 November 2021, the Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) was launched into space by NASA and the Johns Hopkins APL laboratory. This mission will collide today at 1:14 am CET with its target, the asteroid Dimorphos, and slightly change its orbit. This is the first planetary defence test mission designed to change the course of an asteroid. The scientific team on this mission includes the astrophysicist Josep Maria Trigo-Rodríguez, from the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) and a member of the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia.

This mission aims to demonstrate the usefulness of the kinetic impact method for deflecting potentially dangerous asteroids. DART will conduct an experiment to change the trajectory and velocity of an asteroid in space using the probe itself for the kinetic impact, without explosive charge. In this way, NASA intends to test planetary defence capabilities should it become necessary to deflect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth in the future.

“With the DART mission, we aim to better understand the key aspects that influence the transfer of kinetic momentum by a non-explosive projectile. It is a physics experiment with which we want to know how efficiently a kamikaze projectile excavates a crater in an asteroid, throwing the materials on the asteroid’s surface in the opposite direction to the projectile,” says CSIC astrophysicist Josep M. Trigo-Rodríguez. “The greater the efficiency of this process, the greater the deflection of the asteroid, but there is a multiplicative factor in the impact excavation process that can be better understood from this experiment,” he adds.

The ICE-CSIC’s Meteorites, Minor Bodies and Planetary Sciences research group has personnel with expertise in the physico-chemical properties of the materials that make up the surfaces of asteroids and comets and has made many contributions in this field. “At ICE-CSIC and the IEEC, we have carried out a series of experiments to better understand the mechanical properties of regolith and shock processes in asteroids to help in understanding their nature and mineralogy,” says Trigo. “Asteroids have a diverse structure that is the result of continuous bombardment by projectiles since their formation. This makes deflecting them a major scientific and technological challenge,” he says.

The DART target is 11 million kilometres from Earth and is the binary asteroid system of Didymos (780 metres in diameter) and Dimorphos (160 metres in diameter), which orbits around Didymos. Neither currently poses a threat to our planet, although it is classified as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid. Its orbit has been carefully studied since its discovery in 1996. Moreover, Didymos is considered a prototype of the rocky bodies that the Earth might have to face in the future.

Upon impact with Dimorphos, DART will transfer its kinetic momentum by slightly shortening the asteroid’s orbit. The DART mission research team will quantify the efficiency of crater excavation by studying the satellite’s new period of revolution by studying the photometric light curve, using some of the world’s largest telescopes. It will also compare the results of the kinetic impact of DART against Dimorphos with computer simulations of kinetic asteroid impacts. In this way, the team will be able to assess the effectiveness of this mitigation approach, as well as the accuracy of the simulations to see how closely they reflect the behaviour of a real asteroid.

In scientific papers prior to the DART spacecraft impact, he has contributed to predicting the nature and properties of Dimorphos’ formative materials, which are key to understanding the consequences of DART’s impact with it. “We are also awaiting optical and spectral observations from DART and its LICIACube cubesat to assist in their interpretation. This robotic device will hit violently an asteroid whose internal structure is unknown, so the final scene is open,” says Trigo.

Hera, the European future of the DART mission
“It should be noted that the Hera mission (ESA) will follow DART and therefore the impact point and the consequences of the excavation of the crater on the Didymos asteroid system (65803) can be precisely determined,” says Trigo, who has been involved for more than a decade in the various proposals that have preceded the DART mission – the Asteroid Impact Mission (AIM), says Trigo, who has been involved for more than a decade in the various proposals that have preceded the DART mission – ESA’s Asteroid Impact Mission (AIM) and the Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment (AIDA) – as well as the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hera mission.

Hera is a European Space Agency (ESA) mission that will visit the binary asteroid Didymos following the impact of NASA’s DART mission on its Dimorphos satellite. Both asteroids will be mapped in high resolution by Hera. It is also planned to use CubeSat technologies to collect complementary information of great interest to mitigate future asteroid encounters.

After the impact, the orbital period of Dimorphos will change and be quantified, but many other details to better understand this binary asteroid will require an additional mission. Therefore, the European Space Agency (ESA) is building Hera to study the impact crater and the consequences it had on Dimorphos. It will also allow to accurately reconstruct its shape, and characterise its composition, structure and nature.