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An asteroid that Nasa crashed a special spacecraft into to knock it off course, is now behaving in a weird way.
The spacecraft named Dart successfully smashed into the Dimorphos asteroid in September last year - it was part of an experiment to change the space rock's direction and test Earth's defences against asteroids in the future.
However, a teacher and his class studying the rock have now discovered that since the collision, it has moved in a strange and unexpected way.
Dimorphos is in orbit around a much larger asteroid called Didymos.
By crashing into the smaller asteroid, the Dart mission successfully altered Dimorphos' orbit by "tens of metres". Dart, which stands for Double Asteroid Redirection Test, used a spacecraft around the size of a fridge.
By successfully crashing directly into Dimorphos, Nasa was testing if it could use similar methods to knock an asteroid off course, if one is in danger of hitting the Earth.
However, using their school telescope, a team of children and their teacher Jonathan Swift at Thacher School in California have found that more than a month after the collision, Dimorphos' orbit continuously slowed after impact... which is unusual and unexpected.
The spacecraft named Dart successfully smashed into the Dimorphos asteroid in September last year - it was part of an experiment to change the space rock's direction and test Earth's defences against asteroids in the future.
However, a teacher and his class studying the rock have now discovered that since the collision, it has moved in a strange and unexpected way.
Dimorphos is in orbit around a much larger asteroid called Didymos.
By crashing into the smaller asteroid, the Dart mission successfully altered Dimorphos' orbit by "tens of metres". Dart, which stands for Double Asteroid Redirection Test, used a spacecraft around the size of a fridge.
By successfully crashing directly into Dimorphos, Nasa was testing if it could use similar methods to knock an asteroid off course, if one is in danger of hitting the Earth.
However, using their school telescope, a team of children and their teacher Jonathan Swift at Thacher School in California have found that more than a month after the collision, Dimorphos' orbit continuously slowed after impact... which is unusual and unexpected.
Asteroid behaving unexpectedly after Nasa's deliberate Dart crash
A school teacher and his students have discovered that an asteroid deliberately hit by a Nasa spacecraft is behaving in a weird way.
www.bbc.co.uk
