{"id":211337,"date":"2026-01-01T09:04:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T09:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/211337\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T09:04:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T09:04:24","slug":"spacecraft-watches-lonely-earth-and-moon-fade-into-the-distance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/211337\/","title":{"rendered":"Spacecraft watches lonely Earth and moon fade into the distance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earth<\/a> is a profoundly isolated rock.<\/p>\n

The European Space Agency’s Hera craft, en route to an asteroid<\/a>, recently captured footage of our planet and the moon<\/a>, set against the black ether of space<\/a>. The two objects gradually shrink as Hera journeyed from some 860,000 to 2.4 million miles (1.4 to 3.8 million kilometers) away in October.<\/p>\n

“As #HeraMission sped away from its homeworld it witnessed the Moon orbiting Earth,” the agency posted online.<\/p>\n


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For reference, the moon is located about 239,000 miles<\/a> from us.<\/p>\n

Our greater solar system<\/a> is extremely isolated, too. There are huge distances between the stars<\/a>. “In fact, if you were to shrink the sun to the size of a sand grain, the distance to the nearest star would be measured in miles,” Sally Dodson-Robinson, a planetary scientist at the University of Delaware, previously told Mashable<\/a>. The nearest solar system is Alpha Centauri, located 25 trillion miles<\/a> from Earth.<\/p>\n

\n Mashable Light Speed\n <\/p>\n

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\n NASA scientist viewed first Voyager images. What he saw gave him chills.<\/p>\n

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The car-sized Hera spacecraft, however, isn’t traveling too far \u2014 in cosmic terms. The mission will rendezvous with the asteroid Dimorphos in December 2026, at a distance of some 121,167,000 miles, or 195 million kilometers, from Earth. It’s a planetary defense<\/a> expedition: Hera will use a slew of cameras and instruments to survey the impact site of NASA<\/a>‘s successful asteroid-deflection test<\/a>, which proved humanity can alter the path of a potentially menacing asteroid. Dimorphos, which is no threat to Earth, is about the size of a stadium, at 525 feet (160 meters) across. <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\n The asteroid Dimorphos, on right, after impact by NASA’s DART spacecraft in 2022. Dimorphos orbits the asteroid Didymos as part of a binary asteroid system.
\n Credit: ASI \/ NASA\n <\/p>\n

“By gathering close-up data about the Dimorphos asteroid, which was impacted by NASA\u2019s DART spacecraft in 2022, Hera will help turn asteroid deflection into a well understood and potentially repeatable technique,” ESA explained.<\/p>\n

To prepare for all sorts of future contingencies \u2014 such as a colossal asteroid or one that surprises us \u2014 researchers are also investigating the potential of detonating a nuclear device<\/a> near an asteroid to change such a menacing rock’s trajectory. <\/p>\n

Although there’s no known threat<\/a> from an asteroid for at least the next century, it behooves us to be prepared, even if the odds of an impact are exceedingly small.<\/p>\n

“You wouldn’t want to take chances on an asteroid the size of a city,” Nathan Moore, a physicist at Sandia National Laboratories, previously told Mashable<\/a>.<\/p>\n