PRAVEC , P.

We review recent results of a project for building a large number of comprehensive physical asteroid models from combined photo- and interferometric observations, occultation timings, and other complementary data. Photometric data form the robust and stable basis for modelling, while particularly HST/FGS-interferometry and CW radar data can add...

International audience

The binary near-Earth asteroid (65803) Didymos is the target for the two components of the Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA) mission. The NASA DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission is scheduled to impact the Didymos secondary during its apparition in 2022. ESA's proposed Hera mission will arrive years later to obtain in...

The Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment (AIDA) mission is a joint cooperation between European and US space agencies that consists of two separate and independent spacecraft that will be launched to a binary asteroid system, the near-Earth asteroid Didymos, to test the kinetic impactor technique to deflect an asteroid. The European Asteroid...

International audience

We performed photometric observations of the binary near-Earth asteroid (65803) Didymos in support of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission that will test the Kinetic Impactor technology for diverting dangerous asteroids. It will hit the Didymos secondary, called Dimorphos, on 2022 September 26. We observed Didymos with 11...

On 26 September 2022, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission successfully impacted Dimorphos, the natural satellite of the binary near-Earth asteroid (65803) Didymos. Numerical simulations of the impact provide a means to find the surface material properties and structures of the target that are consistent with the observed...

CASTAway is a mission concept to explore our Solar System's main asteroid belt. Asteroids and comets provide a window into the formation and evolution of our Solar System and the composition of these objects can be inferred from space - based remote sensing using spectroscopic techniques. Variations in composition across the asteroid...