Dimorphos

Dimorphos — asteroid moon, shown live in Cosmoscope, a real-time 3D map of the universe.

The small asteroid moon struck by NASA’s DART spacecraft. Its detailed mesh is reconstructed from images taken before impact. It is retained as a historical view: DART altered the asteroid’s shape, and this is not a claim to show today’s surface.

Shape

Pre-impact DART reconstruction v004

Model extent

178 × 169 × 115 m

Impact

DART · 26 September 2022

After impact

Shape changed; the displayed mesh records the pre-impact body

Mutual period

About 11 h 55 min before impact; 11 h 22 min afterwards

Orbit display

Circular approximation; orbital phase and attitude illustrative

Surface

Measured terrain, neutral material; incomplete imaging coverage

Credit

NASA/Johns Hopkins APL · Daly et al. 2024

Seeing Dimorphos in real time

Cosmoscope puts Dimorphos at its true position in the solar system, computed from JPL-derived ephemeris and updated continuously. Open the live 3D view to see, in real time, how far Dimorphos is from the Sun and from Earth right now, how many minutes or hours light takes to cross that gap, and how fast it is moving along its orbit. Scrub the timeline to place Dimorphos where it was on any past date, or where it will be years from now.