How Dimorphos: Didymos's Moon Was Born
A remarkable new animation offers compelling insights into the origin story of Dimorphos, the diminutive moon of the asteroid Didymos. This visual narrative, grounded in scientific research, illustrates a compelling theory for how Dimorphos came to be.
The Spin-Up Scenario
The animation depicts a process where Didymos itself undergoes a 'spin-up.' As Didymos rotates faster, centrifugal forces lead to material being shed from its surface. This shedding isn't a violent disruption but rather a more gradual process of local surface material being ejected.
Creating Dimorphos
This continuous shedding of material, guided by the internal and surface properties of Didymos as described in research by Barnouin et al. (2024), eventually coalesces to form Dimorphos. The animation suggests that this mechanism can explain the observed characteristics of the Didymos system, including the triangular-like ridge found at Didymos's equator.
Interestingly, this formation model allows for the creation of Dimorphos without significantly altering the geology of Didymos at higher elevations, preserving the asteroid's broader geological features.
