65803 Didymos is a near-Earth asteroid from the Apollo group, discovered in 1996 and with ~780 m in diameter. Its small moon, Dimorphos, with ~160 m in diameter, was the target of
NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission in September 2022, which successfully demonstrated the use of kinetic impact for planetary defense. A subsequent mission,
ESA's Hera, will arrive at the binary system in November 2026 to assess in detail the effects of the DART impact.
This update includes the following additions:- New high-resolution 3D models of Didymos and Dimorphos derived from
NASA PDS and converted to cmod by
pedro_jg (thanks!). These are the same default 1.7.0. models, just with higher resolution.
- XYZV trajectory (2022-2027) accurately covering the DART impact and Hera's arrival.
- Modifies the default Didymos/Dimorphos installation in Celestia 1.7.0. Therefore, the "Replace" parameter is included.
- For post-impact effects, see the DART addon.