Image Credit: Instagram/@europeanspaceagency
The DART mission by NASA demonstrated a significant advancement in asteroid deflection by altering the motion of an asteroid through kinetic impact. In September 2022, a cost-effective spacecraft successfully changed the trajectory of asteroid Didymos and its moonlet Dimorphos. Two years later, the European Space Agency's Hera mission is poised to launch into space to map the same asteroid. Scheduled for liftoff from Cape Canaveral on October 7 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the Hera spacecraft, about the size of a small car weighing approximately 1,081 kilograms, will travel several hundred million kilometers to reach its destination in October 2026.
ESA's Hera mission aims to study the effects of NASA's DART probe impact on Dimorphos and observe the behavior of the double asteroid. Utilizing data from an Italian minisatellite deployed on board the DART mission and images captured by DART pre-impact, scientists gained crucial insights into the asteroid's surface properties. Contributions from the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes also provided valuable data.
Through coordinated observations from ground-based telescopes worldwide, it was confirmed that DART successfully altered Dimorphos's trajectory. Furthermore, a decrease in Dimorphos's orbital period around Didymos was noted post-impact. Recent studies suggest that the impact generated a trail thousands of kilometers long, with the potential to enter Earth's atmosphere.
Hera's main objective is to investigate the aftermath of the impact to further scientific understanding and aid space agencies in generalizing the findings.The aim is to achieve outcomes and enhance models to successfully redirect asteroids away from potential collisions with Earth or space structures. Additionally, the Hera mission is set to thoroughly investigate a binary asteroid system, marking the inaugural mission focused on studying asteroid pairs like Didymos and Dimorphos. Around 15% of all known asteroids exist as binaries, making this exploration crucial in advancing scientists' comprehension of asteroids' characteristics and actions.
