Hera Asteroid Probe Spots Mysterious Martian Moon During Flyby

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The Hera probe has swung around Mars, using the planet's gravitational pull to fling itself toward its asteroid target. During its brief rendezvous with the Red Planet, Hera caught a glimpse of the less-seen side of Mars' smaller, tidally-locked moon as it orbited its home planet.

The European Space Agency (ESA) launched its Hera mission on October 7, 2024 , to inspect the damage caused by NASA's DART mission (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) when it smashed into an asteroid to redirect its orbit. Hera is set to reach its asteroid target in 2026, but the space probe got to dust off its science tools for the first time during its Mars flyby on Wednesday.

The spacecraft came as close as 3,106 miles (5,000 kilometers) to Mars, allowing the planet's gravity to shift Hera's trajectory toward its target as it cruised through deep space. During its flyby, Hera activated a trio of instruments to image the surface of the Red Planet, as well as its moon Deimos.

⁘These instruments have been tried out before, during Hera's departure from Earth, but this is the first time that we have employed them on a small distant moon for which we still lack knowledge – demonstrating their excellent performance in the process!⁘ ESA's Hera mission scientist Michael Kueppers said in a statement .

In September 2022, NASA's 1,340-pound spacecraft smashed into Dimorphos to slightly nudge it as a test of planetary defense. The mission was a success, proving that kinetic impactors can be used to redirect dangerous asteroids should one be headed towards Earth. Datasets gathered by ground-based optical and radio telescopes show that, following the collision, Dimorphos' orbital period around Didymos shortened from 11 hours and 55 minutes to 11 hours and 23 minutes.

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