A spacecraft has been launched to visit an asteroid that NASA altered in a landmark experiment conducted in 2022. The Hera spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 10:52 AM local time (15:52 BST) on Monday, embarking on a mission to evaluate the effectiveness of asteroid deflection techniques in protecting Earth from potential impacts.
Hera is part of an international collaboration led by the European Space Agency (ESA) and follows NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) project. This mission aims to study Dimorphos, a small moon approximately 160 meters wide that orbits a larger asteroid named Didymos, creating a binary asteroid system. In a groundbreaking experiment last year, NASA successfully collided a probe with Dimorphos, altering its trajectory by a few meters. While Dimorphos was not on a collision course with Earth, the test served as a proof of concept for future planetary defense strategies.
If all goes according to plan, Hera will reach Dimorphos, located about seven million miles away, in December 2026. The spacecraft will assess the impact crater formed by the DART collision and deploy two cube-shaped probes to analyze the asteroid’s composition and mass. Naomi Murdoch, a scientist involved in the ESA mission, highlighted the importance of understanding Dimorphos’s physical properties, stating, “We need to understand what they are made of. Are they blocks of rock? Are they made of sand inside?”
The insights gained from the Hera mission will help scientists devise better strategies for intercepting other asteroids, which can vary greatly in size and structure. While experts do not foresee an imminent threat of a catastrophic asteroid impact akin to the extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs, smaller asteroids pose a genuine risk. For instance, in 2013, a house-sized asteroid exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, injuring over 1,600 people and causing extensive property damage.
Scientists are optimistic that future advancements will enable them to identify and redirect asteroids, minimizing potential damage. “It’s not about preventing the extinction of the human race. It’s about creating a system to minimize the damage as much as we can. The dinosaurs didn’t have a space program, but we do,” Murdoch said.
However, experts caution that while NASA’s success with DART is promising, intercepting all asteroids is not straightforward. Effective detection of incoming threats remains crucial to planetary defense efforts, emphasizing the need for continued research and development in this vital area.
