Press Events

On September 26, 2022, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft successfully collided with the asteroid Dimorphos, making history as humanity’s first demonstration of asteroid deflection. Since then, the team has been busy analyzing the data from the camera onboard the DART spacecraft and the Italian Space Agency’s Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids (LICIACube); making continued observations with Earth- and space-based telescopes; and modeling DART’s impact event, the ejecta evolution, and dynamics.

The team previously announced that Dimorphos’ orbital period was changed by the DART impact by 33 minutes, indicating that the ejecta contributed significantly to enhance the deflection produced by the spacecraft. This press event will share the latest results, from reconstructing the details of DART’s impact with the asteroid’s surface and simulating DART’s kinetic impact using that information to analyzing the rich LICIACube dataset and sharing the latest Hubble Space Telescope observations of the Didymos-Dimorphos system. These results are being used to fully understand DART’s impact event and its implications for future planetary defense applications if such a need should arise.

Panelists

• Nancy Chabot – DART Coordination Lead
  DART Results to Date and Recent 2023 Telescopic Views of the Didymos System
  Abstract #1623
• Carolyn Ernst – DRACO Instrument Scientist
  The Geometry of the DART Spacecraft’s Impact onto the Surface of Dimorphos
  Abstract #2529
• Angela Stickle – DART Impact Working Group Lead
  Modeling DART’s Impact and Estimates of the Resulting Crater Size
  Abstract #2563
• Maurizio Pajola – LICIACube Science Team
  LICIACube and Close-up Observations of DART’s Impact
  Abstract #2125
• Jian-Yang Li – DART Investigation Team
  Ongoing Hubble Space Telescope Observations of the Didymos System Since DART’s Impact
  Abstract #2115

More than 5 billion miles from home and 17 years into its historic mission – including the first close-up exploration of Pluto and the first encounter with a planetary object in the Kuiper Belt – NASA’s New Horizons continues to shed light on the mysterious worlds of the outer solar system. Mission team members will discuss discoveries that provide insight into the origins of Kuiper Belt object Arrokoth and the evolving geology of Pluto – and preview unique, distant observations of Uranus and Neptune that could influence how we observe ice giants beyond our planetary system.

Panelists

• Alan Stern – New Horizons principal investigator, Southwest Research Institute
  On the Properties and Origin of Kuiper Belt Object Arrokoth’s Large Mounds
  Abstract #1263
• Oliver White – New Horizons co-investigator, SETI Institute/NASA Ames Research Center
  Is True Polar Wander Recorded in Pluto’s Ancient Geology?
  Abstract #1286
• Ishan Mishra – post-doctoral fellow, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
  How Widespread are the Bladed Terrains on Pluto?
  Abstract #1787
• Will Grundy – New Horizons co-investigator, Lowell Observatory
  Exploring Ice Giants at High Phase with New Horizons
  Abstract #1549

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) made extensive observations of the distribution of water on the lunar surface during its last year of operations. We present the results of SOFIA observations in February 2022, covering the south pole and a portion of the lunar far south up to -60 degrees latitude. These were the first observations to make fully sampled maps resolving individual mountains and craters down to 10 km size. We find that lunar water is associated with topographic features in detail, such that the shaded regions behind high-altitude features have more water than the exposed, sunward features.

Panelists

• William T. Reach – SOFIA Director of Science and Mission Operations
• Casey Honniball – Researcher at University of Maryland College Park
• Paul G. Lucey – Professor at University of Hawai’i

Abstract #1121

Analysis of radar images from NASA’s Magellan mission shows a vent associated with Venus’ massive Maat Mons volcano that changed over an 8-month period between orbiter imaging opportunities, according to work being presented at the 54th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference and published in the journal Science on March 15, 2023. While Venus has a geologically young surface and has long been suspected to be volcanically active, this new work provides the “smoking gun” that volcanic eruptions are occurring in the present day. This press event will discuss the results in context of what this means for our understanding of Venus and upcoming operations of the NASA VERITAS and ESA EnVision missions.

Panelists

• Lori Glaze – Director, NASA’s Planetary Science Division
• Robbie Herrick – Science Team member on NASA’s VERITAS mission and the VenSAR instrument for the EnVision mission, University of Alaska Fairbanks
• Scott Hensley – Project Scientist for NASA’s VERITAS and ESA’s EnVision missions, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Abstract #1061