After weeks of analyzing mission data DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test), scientists concluded that the spacecraft successfully changed the orbit of the asteroid Dimorphos. The probe made history by hitting the space rock on September 26 in the first demonstration of an asteroid deflection technique, and also being the first time that humanity has attempted to alter the movement of a space object.

Before the impact, Dimorphos took 11 hours and 55 minutes to orbit Didymos, the other asteroid in the binary system. Telescopic observations showed that the impact changed the orbit of the asteroid Dimorphos, which is now 11 hours and 23 minutes - the mission team had estimated a minimum orbital period of 73 seconds or more, which would indicate the success of the missions. Thus, DART reached the minimum limit, as well as beyond it.

Mission scientists are still collecting data from ground-based observatories around the world that will help improve the accuracy of the rock's orbital period. Even so, there is still a lot of work to be done, and the team will analyze the ejected debris cloud to understand the efficiency of DART's momentum transfer during the collision with the asteroid.

Several tons of rock were launched into space by the DART crash. Now scientists want to better understand the recoil of this explosion of debris, which increased DART's “push” against the asteroid Dimorphos, as is the case when air escapes from a balloon and pushes it in the opposite direction. But to do that, they first need to know more about the still little-known properties of Dimorphos.

Thus, to understand the effects of material recoil, scientists need to know the surface of the asteroid Dimorphos, its degree of resistance and other aspects that are still being analyzed. To do this, they will work with images of the asteroid taken in the final moments of the mission, together with photos taken by the Italian LICIACube satellite.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson celebrated the results. “This mission shows that NASA is trying to be prepared for whatever the universe throws at us.”, he said in a statement. “We all have a responsibility to protect our planet. After all, this is the only one we have.”.