Europe's Hera mission, on its way to the Didymos–Dimorphos double asteroid system, has performed a close flyby of Mars, receiving a crucial gravitational slingshot, testing some of its instruments, ...

Hera spacecraft successfully tested its autonomous surface feature tracking system during a high-speed flyby of Mars, marking ...

Like our moon, Deimos is tidally locked to Mars, meaning the same side always faces the planet—the only side visible to rovers on the Martian surface. The only way to see Deimos’ far side up close is ...

Hera will also collect information about Didymos, the asteroid that Dimorphos orbits around. Hera is expected to reach the Didymos in December 2026, the ESA said. "This has been the Hera team's ...

The European Space Agency (ESA) fires up three of the instruments on the Hera spacecraft and takes images of the smaller ...

On 12 March 2025, the Hera spacecraft used Mars's gravity to accelerate its journey to the Didymos/Dimorphos binary asteroid system. The probe's camera system, developed and built in Germany, captured ...

DART deliberately crashed a spacecraft into that asteroid, aiming to change its orbit around a larger asteroid, Didymos. That was a test of whether a dangerous space rock bound for Earth could be ...

ESA Hera’s target binary asteroid system is much smaller than Deimos. Dimorphos is a 558-foot-wide (170-meter) space rock that orbits its larger 2,625-foot-wide (800-meter) companion, Didymos.

a 525ft-wide “moonlet” which circles a larger asteroid called Didymos. The team had hoped the impact would shorten Didymos’ 11 hour 11 minute orbit by a few minutes, but it ended up shaving ...

The results of Hera's flyby could ultimately tell us whether Deimos is a captured asteroid or made from debris from a giant impact on Mars. Europe's Hera mission, on its way to the Didymos ...

Credit: ESA Europe's Hera mission, on its way to the Didymos–Dimorphos double asteroid system, has performed a close flyby of Mars, receiving a crucial gravitational slingshot, testing some of ...