ESA’s Hera spacecraft has taken its first image showing Didymos and its little moon Dimorphos as two separate objects, not one dot. That’s the pair NASA’s DART probe slammed into in 2022 to test whether we could nudge an asteroid.
- The image was taken October 18 with Hera’s Asteroid Framing Camera.
- The pair is about 197 million kilometers from Earth.
- Hera’s job is to study the aftermath up close and figure out why Dimorphos shifted much more than scientists predicted.
My take
This is planetary defense done right: hit it, then go back and measure. Knowing exactly how much a kinetic impact moves a rock is what turns a one-time stunt into a plan. I’ll be watching for the close-up photos.
God Bless, and May the Source Be with You!
