The European Space Agency's Hera spacecraft has taken its first images of the Didymos asteroid system, the pair of rocks that NASA's DART mission struck in 2022. The early pictures were captured as the probe approached its target, and they mark the first close look at the system since the impact reshaped it.
DART, short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test, slammed into Dimorphos, the small moon orbiting the larger asteroid Didymos. The collision was a test of whether a spacecraft could alter the path of a space rock, a technique that could one day matter if an asteroid were ever found on a collision course with Earth. The impact shortened Dimorphos's orbit around Didymos, showing that the kinetic approach could change a body's motion.
Hera was launched by ESA to study the aftermath in detail. Its mission is to map the craters left by the impact, measure the mass of Dimorphos and examine how the moonlet's interior and surface responded to being hit. Those measurements will help scientists judge how well the earlier test worked and how reliable such deflection would be in a real emergency.
The first images are an encouraging start, but the most important work is still ahead. Hera's full arrival and survey phase has yet to begin, and the detailed observations that will turn these early views into hard data are expected in the months to come.
Credit. Based on reporting by Robert Lea for Space.com. Is this your work? Write to us.
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