Where does this come from, and can I check it?

The 2022 impact shortened Dimorphos's orbit around Didymos by 32 minutes. The figure is taken from NASA Science, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a space fact?

Yes. It sits on the Space shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

What else can I read about it?

The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

DART nudged an asteroid onto a new orbit

The 2022 impact shortened Dimorphos's orbit around Didymos by 32 minutes NASA crashed a 570 kilogram spacecraft into the small moonlet Dimorphos in September 2022 at about 6 kilometres per second. Telescopes on Earth timed the resulting change in its orbit around the larger asteroid Didymos. The shift was far larger than the impact alone would explain, because debris flew off and pushed harder. It sits in Mondo's space collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

NASA Science

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

Go further

Space & Astronomy trivia

More facts like this

Lucy is touring Jupiter's Trojan asteroidsThe mission visits ancient bodies sharing Jupiter's orbit in two clouds Ceres holds about a third of the belt's massThe dwarf planet is 940 kilometres across and has sub-surface ice Europa Clipper will make dozens of close passesThe 2024 launch heads for an icy moon and a survey of its ocean Geostationary satellites sit 35,786 kilometres upAt that height one orbit takes a day, so the craft appears to hang still GPS clocks are corrected for relativity every daySatellite clocks gain about 38 microseconds daily and are tuned to compensate Mars launch windows open about every 26 monthsSpacecraft wait for the planets to line up along an elliptical path

Tags: dart, asteroids, planetary-defence

DART nudged an asteroid onto a new orbit: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: The 2022 impact shortened Dimorphos's orbit around Didymos by 32 minutes. The figure is taken from NASA Science, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a space fact?: Yes. It sits on the Space shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.