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Asteroids, comets and Kuiper belt are bodies smaller than planets that orbit the sun. Asteroids are composed of metals and rock, whereas comets also contain ice and dust. The Kuiper belt is a collection of such bodies that orbits at the edge of the solar system.
The successful impact of NASA’s DART on Dimorphos, the moon of asteroid Didymos, has been analysed using advanced numerical simulations. The results reveal the asteroid’s low surface cohesion and rubble-pile structure, similar to what has been observed on asteroids Ryugu and Bennu.
Yellowish bright areas around the Dantu crater on Ceres, identified using the Dawn Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer, represent recent emplacement or excavation of large quantities of ammonium-rich materials and suggest the presence of subsurface fluids.
Dimorphos ejecta plume properties were revealed by the observations from the LICIACube cube satellite, which was deployed 15 days in advance of the impact of DART.
Numerical simulations of the DART impact on asteroid Didymos’s moon Dimorphos highlight its rubble-pile nature with a low bulk density and boulder volume fraction. These results indicate that Dimorphos formed from reaccumulated material shed from Didymos via rotation or impact.
Iron nitride (Fe4N) is detected on magnetite particles within the Ryugu sample returned by Hayabusa2. It is probably the product of impacts of nitrogen-rich dust from the outer Solar System on the surface of Ryugu, indicative of a flux of N-rich dust in the inner Solar System.
The altered and thermally metamorphosed CY chondrites are shown to be the meteoritic analogue of asteroid Phaethon. This suggests that Phaethon’s activity is driven by gas released from the decomposition of near-surficial material heated at perihelion, whereas the interior is kept relatively unaltered and hydrated.
Astrophysicist Avi Loeb says that an interstellar meteor showered Earth with particles. At a planetary-science conference this week, researchers begged to differ.
The successful impact of NASA’s DART on Dimorphos, the moon of asteroid Didymos, has been analysed using advanced numerical simulations. The results reveal the asteroid’s low surface cohesion and rubble-pile structure, similar to what has been observed on asteroids Ryugu and Bennu.
It’s been an eventful year for robotic missions. From probes of Solar System bodies to large-scale cosmic structures, advances in our understanding of the formation and evolution of the Universe gather speed.