ESA's Hera Arrives to Inspect the Crater DART Left on an Asteroid
ESA's Hera Will View Asteroid Scars from DART's Strike
After a two-year journey, ESA's Hera spacecraft is closing in on the Didymos-Dimorphos pair to survey the aftermath of NASA's 2022 DART impact, which shortened Dimorphos's orbit by about 32 minutes. Hera will gather baseline measurements from 25 to 30 kilometers out, then release two CubeSats—Juventas and Milani—to probe the asteroids' dust, composition, and internal structure, with Juventas possibly landing on Dimorphos itself.
DART's 6.6 km/s impact did shorten the original 11 hour, 55 minute orbit by about 32 minutes, and a debris stream was seen from the binary pair in the weeks after impact.