The September 2022 collision of a spacecraft into the asteroid moon Dimorphos completely changed the space rock’s orbit. “Our research shows that while the direct impact of the DART spacecraft caused this change, the boulders ejected gave an additional kick that was almost as big. The authors believe that these ejected boulders likely came from specific sources. “DART’s solar panels likely hit two big boulders, called Atabaque and Bodhran, on the asteroid,” added study co-author and astronomer Jessica Sunshine. This includes the data on the asteroid boulders themselves.