ObserveTheSky › Everything in the sky › Dimorphos
moon · moon of asteroid Didymos

Dimorphos compared to a school bus

Small moon of Didymos, deliberately struck by NASA’s DART spacecraft in 2022 to test asteroid deflection.

Can you see it?

No small telescope will show you this one; it is here to be understood, not spotted.

How big is Dimorphos compared to a school bus?

Dimorphos is roughly thirteen times as long as a school bus.

How long does Dimorphos take to go once round Didymos?

Dimorphos takes about 11 hours to go once round Didymos.

Worth knowing about Dimorphos

Tidally locked before DART: it turned once every 11.92 hours, its orbital period then. The crash shortened the orbit, so the two no longer match.

The machines we sent
NASA’s DART spacecraft deliberately crashed into Dimorphos in 2022, shortening its orbit around Didymos by 33.24 minutes — the first-ever test of nudging an asteroid off course to protect the Earth one day.
Dimorphos — A model of its measured shape, seen from the Earth and lit by the Sun: not a photograph, and not what a telescope shows.
The numbers
Mean diameter151 m
Distance from what it orbits1.152 km
Once round its orbit11.37 hours

How anyone knows this

Games it appears in

Show Dimorphos in the model☀️ Everything the Sun holds🌙 Plan an evening outside