The DART mission by NASA successfully showcased a method of asteroid deflection by impacting the Didymos asteroid in September 2022. Two years later, the European Space Agency's Hera mission is launching to study the effects of this impact. Scheduled to lift off on October 7 from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the Hera spacecraft is expected to reach its destination in October 2026 after covering several hundred million kilometers. This mission aims to analyze the intentional impact by DART on the Dimorphos moonlet of asteroid Didymos. Collaboration with ground-based telescopes revealed the success of DART in altering Dimorphos' trajectory and reducing its orbital period. Hera's main goal is to investigate the aftermath of the impact to provide valuable insights to the scientific community and space agencies.The content can be rephrased as: "The research aims to achieve more effective models for diverting asteroids from potential collisions with Earth or space facilities. Additionally, the Hera mission plans to conduct a thorough investigation of a binary asteroid system, making it the first mission specifically targeting the study of asteroid pairs like Didymos and Dimorphos. Since 15% of known asteroids exist as binaries, this exploration will provide valuable insights into the characteristics and actions of asteroids."
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...