European Space Agency embarks on mission to analyze asteroid redirected by NASA
Image Credit: Instagram/@europeanspaceagency NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART mission, achieved a significant feat by demonstrating a method of asteroid deflection. This was accompli...
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The DART mission by NASA successfully demonstrated the deflection of an asteroid through kinetic impact, changing its motion in space. In September 2022, a spacecraft impacted the asteroid Didymos and its moonlet Dimorphos, altering their trajectory. Two years later, the European Space Agency’s Hera mission is launching to map the same asteroid. Scheduled to launch on October 7 from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the Hera spacecraft is the size of a small car and weighs about 1,081 kilograms. This ESA mission aims to study the impact of NASA’s DART probe on Dimorphos and its effects on the double asteroid. The collaboration of observations from ground-based telescopes worldwide confirmed the success of DART in deflecting Dimorphos' trajectory. Hera’s primary goal is to investigate the aftermath of the impact, providing valuable information to the scientific community and space agencies.The aim is to achieve positive outcomes by improving models to redirect asteroids away from potentially colliding with Earth or space structures. The Hera mission will play a key role in studying a binary asteroid system, notably the Didymos and Dimorphos pair, in detail. This dedicated mission will provide valuable insights as 15% of known asteroids exist in binary form, enhancing our comprehension of asteroid characteristics and behavior.