3 ms·

The good news was it was successful. The bad news is they way under predicted the amount of redirection. Back to the physics drawing board to understand this.

• forgotpwd16 4y ago
  Did they? Article says mission had a minimum successful change but it says nothing on whether the actual change was successfully predicted.
  • jffry 4y ago
    NASA's press conference said the result was in the upper end of the predicted range, which was between "a few minutes and several tens of minutes" depending on the (unknown) physical makeup of Dimorphos. Studying the impact and debris plumes is expected to help scientists learn more about Dimorphos. I linked the press conference as primary source in my sibling comment if you're curious, although it didn't go into much more detail: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33169879 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33169879
• jffry 4y ago
  During the press conference [1], they stated that there was a variety of models that depended on the physical properties of Dimorphos, which were not well known. The estimated range by which the orbital period would be shortened was between "a few minutes and several tens of minutes" and that 32 minutes is "consistent with the estimates but at the upper end of that range". They also showed a pretty fresh Hubble image of debris plumes from this past Saturday and mentioned that teams are working to use the data and imagery to better understand the composition of Dimorphos. [1] Discussion starts around 11:25 in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhzn0U2m5wQ&t=685s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhzn0U2m5wQ&t=685s
• mlindner 4y ago
  That's not what they said though. It was within the 3 sigma error bars of the amount of deflection, if at the edge of them.