{"id":12951,"date":"2024-11-03T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-03T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=12951"},"modified":"2024-10-09T03:51:14","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T03:51:14","slug":"the-esas-hera-mission-takes-flight-toward-the-asteroid-deflected-by-nasas-dart-probe-two-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/the-esas-hera-mission-takes-flight-toward-the-asteroid-deflected-by-nasas-dart-probe-two-years-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"The ESA\u2019s Hera mission takes flight toward the asteroid deflected by NASA\u2019s DART probe two years\u00a0ago"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n Hera and its two CubeSats are leaving Earth on October 7th.\n ESA<\/a>, CC BY<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n\n

The European Space Agency\u2019s Hera mission will set off from Cape Canaveral on 7 October on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It will travel several hundred million kilometres to reach the double asteroid Didymos in autumn 2026.<\/p>\n\n

This is the follow-up of the intentional impact of NASA\u2019s DART probe onto the smaller body of this double asteroid, the moon called Dimorphos. This first-ever asteroid deflection test aims at modifying the trajectory of the target and understanding precisely what went on. And we already know quite a few things about the success of this deflection \u2013 thanks to a camera on-board DART, an Italian minisatellite (or CubeSat) deployed before impact, the combined power of ground-based telescopes, and the sharp eyes of Hubble and James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).<\/p>\n\n

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