The DART mission by NASA successfully demonstrated asteroid deflection through kinetic impact by changing the motion of asteroid Didymos and its moonlet Dimorphos. The European Space Agency's upcoming Hera mission, launching on October 7 from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, aims to study the effects of the DART probe's impact on Dimorphos. The Hera spacecraft is the size of a small car and weighs around 1,081 kilograms. Combining data from various sources, including ground-based telescopes and space telescopes like Hubble and James Webb, scientists have observed the trajectory change and reduction in orbital period of Dimorphos around Didymos post-impact. Evidently, the impact left a trail that may eventually enter Earth's atmosphere. Hera's mission is critical in uncovering what occurred after the impact, providing valuable insights for the scientific community and space agencies.The aim is to achieve outcomes and enhance models to efficiently redirect asteroids away from potentially colliding with Earth or space structures. Additionally, the Hera mission is anticipated to carry out an extensive study of a binary asteroid system, marking the inaugural mission specifically dedicated to investigating asteroid pairs like Didymos and Dimorphos. With 15% of known asteroids being binaries, this expedition will provide valuable insights into the characteristics and movements of asteroids for scientific advancement.
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...