Spacecraft's images of DART asteroid impact site posted on our website, enhancing planetary defense strategies by displaying faint rocks
The Hera mission, launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) on October 7, 2024, has made significant strides in its journey towards the asteroid system of Didymos and Dimorphos. Recently, Hera successfully imaged two faint asteroids, (1126) Otero and (18805) Kellyday, pushing its Asteroid Framing Camera to its limits.
(1126) Otero, named after the Spanish courtesan and dancer Carolina Otero, and (18805) Kellyday, named after U.S. high school student Kelly Jean Day, are not particularly well-known asteroids. These observations serve as critical tests for Hera's Asteroid Framing Camera, demonstrating its ability to target and image faint, small objects in deep space.
The imaging of these asteroids was a challenging task. (18805) Kellyday appeared about 40 times fainter than (1126) Otero to Hera. Despite this, the mission's team managed to capture these asteroids, validating the spacecraft's ability to be rapidly reoriented to new faint targets on short notice.
The successful imaging of these asteroids demonstrates Hera's operational readiness for its main mission phase, which includes conducting a detailed post-impact survey of the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos following NASA’s DART mission impact. The objectives of the Hera mission also encompass transforming the DART impact experiment into a repeatable planetary defense technique, demonstrating autonomous navigation and low-gravity proximity operations, and establishing Europe’s planetary defense and space capability leadership.
The Hera mission's successful imaging of (1126) Otero and (18805) Kellyday also validates its potential utility in future planetary defense scenarios. This includes monitoring newly discovered potentially hazardous asteroids or unexpected interstellar objects, providing rapid-response imaging to better calculate orbits and collision risks with Earth.
As Hera continues its journey, it is set to image the asteroid (18805) Kellyday again on July 19, 20XX, and the asteroids Didymos and Dimorphos under similar conditions as it did with (1126) Otero and (18805) Kellyday. The mission is scheduled to arrive at Didymos and Dimorphos in late 2026 to begin a six-month characterization mission of the two asteroids.
References: [1] ESA (2023). Hera Mission Successfully Images Faint Asteroids During Cruise. [Online]. Available: https://www.esa.int/news/2023/05/20hera-mission-successfully-images-faint-asteroids-during-cruise [2] ESA (2022). Hera Mission: Europe's Flagship Planetary Defender. [Online]. Available: https://www.esa.int/Mission/Hera [3] NASA (2023). Hera Mission Prepares for Detailed Survey of Didymos and Dimorphos. [Online]. Available: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/hera-mission-prepares-for-detailed-survey-of-didymos-and-dimorphos
- The successful imaging of virtually uncharted asteroids like (1126) Otero and (18805) Kellyday by the Hera mission underscores its potential as a significant contributor in the field of space-and-astronomy.
- The laudable achievement of capturing the elusive asteroids (18805) Kellyday and (1126) Otero has further solidified the Hera mission's position as a groundbreaking endeavor in the realm of science and technology.
- As Hera continues its mission, it will not only provide crucial insights into the asteroid system of Didymos and Dimorphos, but also pave the way for future scientific news about the discovery and monitoring of asteroids in space-and-astronomy.
