{"id":61685,"date":"2025-08-12T04:46:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T04:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/61685\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T04:46:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T04:46:11","slug":"hera-spots-asteroid-3-million-kilometers-away-proving-its-usefulness-in-the-push-to-improve-planetary-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/61685\/","title":{"rendered":"Hera spots asteroid 3 million kilometers away, proving its usefulness in the push to improve planetary defense"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"Image<\/a>Image showing the debris blasted from the surface of Dimorpho after intentional impact by NASA\u2019s DART spacecraft (Image source: NASA, ESA, STScI, and Hubble; cropped)<\/p>\n

ESA\u2019s Hera, on a mission to advance planetary defense techniques, successfully passed two tests on short notice. The spacecraft captured images of two asteroids \u2014 (1126) Otero and (18805) Kellyday \u2014 on separate occasions, demonstrating its ability to quickly identify faint, distant space objects \u2014 an essential ability for planetary defense missions.<\/p>\n

Hera, launched on October 7, 2024, is on course for the Didymos binary asteroid system. The binary system consists of two asteroids\u00a0\u2014 Dimorphos and Didymos\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0the former is a smaller asteroid orbiting\u00a0the latter. NASA\u2019s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) was sent in 2022 to test asteroid deflection for the first time by crashing into Dimorphos. The mission was successful as the impact altered Dimorphos\u2019 orbit. <\/p>\n

Hera is set to arrive at the Didymos binary system in late 2026 to perform a post-impact survey of Dimorphos, ultimately helping scientists understand how effective asteroid deflection techniques are for planetary defense. But ESA needed to test the spacecraft\u2019s camera in conditions similar to those expected when it first sights Didymos. <\/p>\n

Hera, using its Asteroid Framing Camera, captured Otero, a rare A-type asteroid, from about three million kilometers away. Hera\u2019s camera observed the asteroid for three hours, taking shots every six minutes. A time-lapse created from these images revealed the asteroid\u2019s motion, differentiating it from a star. <\/p>\n

After sighting Otero in May 2025, Hera\u2019s imaging was called into action two months later. On July 19, it captured Kellyday, which appeared about 40 times fainter than Otero. Giacomo Moresco, Flight Dynamics Engineer at ESA\u2019s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, described the results from the rapid-response observations as \u201cvery encouraging.\u201d Hera is proving its job-readiness for its mission at Didymos.<\/p>\n

NASA<\/a> and ESA<\/a> <\/p>\n

Image source: NASA (linked above)<\/p>\n

\"Chibuike<\/a>Chibuike Okpara<\/a> – Tech Writer – 109 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2024<\/p>\n

I have always been fascinated by technology and digital devices my entire life and even got addicted to it. I have always marveled at the intricacy of even the simplest digital devices and systems around us. I have been writing and publishing articles online for about 6 years now, just about a year ago, I found myself lost in the marvel of smartphones and laptops we have in our hands every day. I developed a passion for learning about new devices and technologies that come with them and at some point, I asked myself, “Why not get into writing tech articles?” It is useless to say I followed up the idea \u2014 it is evident. I am an open-minded individual who derives an infinite amount of joy from researching and discovering new information, I believe there is so much to learn and such a short life to live, so I put my time to good use \u2014 learning new things. I am a ‘bookworm’ of the internet and digital devices. When I am not writing, you will find me on my devices still, I do explore and admire the beauty of nature and creatures. I am a fast learner and quickly adapt to changes, always looking forward to new adventures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Image showing the debris blasted from the surface of Dimorpho after intentional impact by NASA\u2019s DART spacecraft (Image…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49812,64,63,234,11046,235,49811,227,233,226,44561,236,232,228,229,128,231,230],"class_list":["post-61685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-asteriod-deflection","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-benchmarks","tag-esa","tag-graphics-card","tag-hera","tag-laptop","tag-netbook","tag-notebook","tag-planetary-defense","tag-processor","tag-reports","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-science","tag-test","tag-tests"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}