Kinetic deflection change due to target global curvature as revealed by NASA/DART

Abstract

Kinetic deflection is a planetary defense technique that delivers spacecraft momentum to a small body to deviate its course from Earth. The deflection efficiency depends strongly on the impactor and target. Among them, the contribution of global curvature was poorly understood. The ejecta plume created by NASA's DART impact on its target asteroid, Dimorphos, exhibited an elliptical shape almost aligned along its north-south direction. Here, we identify that this elliptical ejecta plume resulted from the target’s curvature, reducing the momentum transfer to 44±10% along the orbit track compared to an equivalent impact on a flat target. We also find lower kinetic deflection of impacts on smaller Near-Earth objects (NEOs) due to higher curvature. A solution to mitigate low deflection efficiency is to apply multiple low-energy impactors rather than a single high-energy impactor. Rapid reconnaissance to acquire a target's properties before deflection enables determining the proper locations and timing of impacts.