NASA, the American space exploration agency, is well-remembered for its 2022 mission involving the spacecraft ‘DART,’ which collided with a small asteroid. Currently, another spacecraft is en route to observe that very asteroid. On Monday, at 10:52 AM local time (15:52 BST), the ‘Hera’ spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida. This mission is part of an international research effort aimed at investigating whether we can prevent hazardous asteroids from impacting Earth. The 2022 collision, orchestrated by NASA, involved the ‘DART’ spacecraft striking the asteroid known as Dimorphos. The primary objective of the newly launched ‘Hera’ spacecraft is to study the aftermath of that collision and understand the effects on Dimorphos.
If everything proceeds as planned, the ‘Hera Craft’ will reach Dimorphos, located seven million miles away, in December 2026. The ‘Hera Mission,’ conducted by the European Space Agency, is part of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) initiative. Dimorphos is a small moon with a diameter of 160 meters, orbiting a larger asteroid known as Didymos, which is situated near Earth. This relationship between Dimorphos and Didymos classifies them as a binary asteroid system. NASA has reported that the collision in 2022 successfully altered the trajectory of Dimorphos, with scientists indicating that the impact shifted the asteroid’s path by several meters. The Dimorphos asteroid system poses a potential threat to Earth.
Scientists do not believe that a small asteroid striking Earth would lead to our extinction, akin to the events of the dinosaur era. They assert that there is currently no known threat of such a magnitude. Any asteroid capable of causing significant damage to our planet would likely be detected well in advance due to advancements in space observation technologies.The Dart and Hera spacecraft are designed to target asteroids that measure approximately 100 to 200 meters in diameter. Observing these objects from our planet poses considerable challenges due to their size and distance.Occasionally, some asteroids do collide with Earth. For instance, in 2013, a small asteroid exploded in the atmosphere above Chelyabinsk, Russia, causing damage to buildings in the vicinity and injuring around 1,600 individuals. Identifying such asteroids in the future will be crucial for planetary defense efforts.