The geology and evolution of the Near-Earth binary asteroid system (65803) Didymos.

Images collected during NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission provide the first resolved views of the Didymos binary asteroid system. These images reveal that the primary asteroid, Didymos, is flattened and has plausible undulations along its equatorial perimeter. At high elevations, its surface is rough and contains large boulders and craters; at low elevations its surface is smooth and possesses fewer large boulders and craters.

Micrometeorite collections: a review and their current status.

Micrometeorites are estimated to represent the main part of the present flux of extraterrestrial matter found on the Earth's surface and provide valuable samples to probe the interplanetary medium. Here, we describe large and representative collections of micrometeorites currently available to the scientific community. These include Antarctic collections from surface ice and snow, as well as glacial sediments from the eroded top of nunataks-summits outcropping from the icesheet-and moraines.

Momentum transfer from the DART mission kinetic impact on asteroid Dimorphos.

The NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission performed a kinetic impact on asteroid Dimorphos, the satellite of the binary asteroid (65803) Didymos, at 23:14 UTC on 26 September 2022 as a planetary defence test. DART was the first hypervelocity impact experiment on an asteroid at size and velocity scales relevant to planetary defence, intended to validate kinetic impact as a means of asteroid deflection. Here we report a determination of the momentum transferred to an asteroid by kinetic impact.

Optical design of the High Resolution Imaging Channel of SIMBIO-SYS: publisher's note.

This publisher's note corrects several sections in Appl. Opt.58, 4059 (2019)1559-128X10.

Optical design of the High Resolution Imaging Channel of SIMBIO-SYS.

This paper describes the optical design of the High Resolution Imaging Channel (HRIC), which is part of the spectrometers and imagers for the Mercury Planetary Orbiter BepiColombo Integrated Observatory SYStem (SIMBIO-SYS) suite, for imaging and spectroscopic investigation of Mercury. The optical design has been optimized to achieve the stringent scientific requirement of 5 m ground sampling at 400 km from the planet's surface in the harsh Mercury environment.

Cometary science. Dust measurements in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko inbound to the Sun.

Critical measurements for understanding accretion and the dust/gas ratio in the solar nebula, where planets were forming 4.5 billion years ago, are being obtained by the GIADA (Grain Impact Analyser and Dust Accumulator) experiment on the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft orbiting comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Between 3.

Introducing a new stratospheric dust-collecting system with potential use for upper atmospheric microbiology investigations.

The stratosphere is a known host to terrestrial microbes of most major biological lineages, but it is also host to incoming meteoric dust. Our goal is to (1) introduce DUSTER (Dust in the Upper Stratosphere Tracking Experiment and Retrieval), an active collector for the nondestructive collection of nano- to micrometer particles in the stratosphere between 30 and 40 km altitude, and (2) demonstrate that even a single particle can be collected free of resident atmospheric and laboratory contaminant particles. DUSTER improves the pervasive and persistent contamination problem in the field of aerobiology research.