NASA is intrigued by the discovery of an asteroid that appears to be shooting rocks into space. The asteroid, known as Dimorphos, has a much larger companion called Didymos, which is spinning so fast that it’s capable of ejecting pieces of rubble into deep space. This phenomenon was discovered during observations conducted by NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission and published in Nature Astronomy on October 26th, 2020.
The DART mission was designed to study asteroids and their behavior patterns to better understand how they interact with each other and their environment. During its observation period, the team noticed something peculiar about Dimorphos’ companion Didymos – it seemed to be sending out small pieces of rock from its surface at high speeds due to its rapid spin rate.
This finding could have major implications for our understanding of asteroids and how they interact with one another in space; further research will need to be done before any definitive conclusions can be drawn however this initial discovery has certainly piqued the interest of scientists around the world who are eager to learn more about these mysterious celestial bodies through further exploration missions, such as DART!.
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