What is Hera's asteroid mission?
Hera captured an image of Didymos asteroid and its moonlet Dimorphos from 56 km away. The mission will perform a close-up investigation of Dimorphos.
Illustration: generated for Physis Systems
Short answer: The Hera mission captured an image of the Didymos asteroid and its moonlet Dimorphos from 56 km away. The Didymos asteroid is 780 meters in diameter and rotates every 2.2 hours.
The primary source for this article is ESA top news's Hera spies a half-hidden asteroid moonlet.
What is the Hera mission?
The Hera mission captured an image of the Didymos asteroid and its moonlet Dimorphos from 56 km away. The mission will perform a close-up investigation of Dimorphos.
What are the details of the Didymos asteroid?
The Didymos asteroid is 780 meters in diameter and has a sharp equatorial ridge. It rotates every 2.2 hours.
What happened to Dimorphos?
The DART spacecraft impacted Dimorphos on September 26, 2022, slowing its orbit by 33 minutes.
What do we know, and what is still open?
What is confirmed: The Hera mission captured an image of the Didymos asteroid and its moonlet Dimorphos. The asteroid's diameter and rotation period are known.
What is still open: The effects of the DART spacecraft impact on Dimorphos' orbit are still being studied.
Why does Physis Systems cover this?
Physis Systems follows research at the frontier, from space to fundamental science. For more stories like this one, visit the Physis Systems blog.
About Physis Systems
Physis Systems (Physis Defense Systems, Inc.) builds Inventi Matrix, an invention engineering platform available in the United States and Canada at inventimatrix.com, and Lumina AI Companion, a personal AI companion you can meet on the Lumina page.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Hera mission?
The Hera mission is a space mission that captured an image of the Didymos asteroid and its moonlet Dimorphos.
How big is the Didymos asteroid?
The Didymos asteroid is 780 meters in diameter.
What happened to Dimorphos?
The DART spacecraft impacted Dimorphos on September 26, 2022, slowing its orbit by 33 minutes.
