Hera Probe Sees Asteroid Pair Separately for First Time
Planetary defense is a growing concern among the scientific community, as efforts have been made to design and implement missions meant to deflect incoming threats to the Earth well in advance. In 2022, NASA intentionally collided the Double Asteroid Redirection test (DART) planetary defense spacecraft into the smaller asteroid of the binary asteroid, Didymos and Dimorphos, with the latter being…
The Hera probe, a joint mission by the European Space Agency (ESA), NASA, and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), recently captured its first image of the binary asteroid Didymos and Dimorphos, which it will study in more detail as it approaches the celestial duo. Hera, launched in October 2024, is now approximately 1,280 kilometers (795 miles) from the binary asteroid, which orbits the Sun together at a distance of around 197 million kilometers (122 million miles) from Earth.
As ESA Head of the Systems Department and Hera mission manager, Ian Carnelli stated, "For the very first time we are seeing through Hera’s own eyes the very double asteroid system that the mission was designed and built for." The primary objective of the Hera mission is to conduct follow-up observations of NASA’s DART planetary defense mission, which intentionally impacted Dimorphos in September 2022 to observe if deflecting an asteroid is possible.
The impact altered Dimorphos’ orbit by 32 to 33 minutes around Didymos, which was initially aimed at at least 73 seconds. The spacecraft will also deploy two satellite probes, Milani and Juventas, to analyze the impact site and gather information on the interior structure of Dimorphos. With increasing awareness of potential asteroid threats and the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor incident, planetary defense is an urgent concern for governments worldwide.
The success of DART and Hera missions will provide valuable insights into how to deflect potential asteroid impactors that could cause significant destruction if they were to strike Earth.
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