The European Hera probe has just sent us its first photos for the story: we orbit Mars

Despite how much we have explored Mars, we had few photos of Deimos, the smallest and distant from its two moons. The European Space Agency has just solved it.

Launched October 7, 2024ESA’s hera probe goes towards Dimorfo, the first asteroid diverted by humanity. Understand the effects of historical impact that NASA’s Dart probe achieved In 2022 it will be Europe’s contribution to the International Planetary Defense Mission as we detect new potentially dangerous objects in the Solar System.

Before getting to Dído, the binary asteroid system of which Dimorfo is part, the Hera probe has flown Mars to gain speed. The gravitational assistance maneuver It happened last night and it was totally successful: Not only because hera shortened his travel time in several months, saving a crucial amount of fuel, but because he took more than a thousand photos.

Deimos and the surface of Mars through the Hara Camera (ESA)

Moving at 32,400 km/h with respect to Mars, Hera went to just 5000 km from the red planet, taking advantage of its gravity to gain energy. But also to photograph The moon deams only 1000 km A distance, a historical overflow that was possible thanks to the fact that ESA had adjusted the trajectory of the probe to coincide with the satellite.

When the images arrived, the agency scientists project them on a large screen at the European Space Operations Center. All present, including Brian May, a astrophysicist in spectroscopy and guitarist of Queen, exploded in shouts and applause.

Deimos and the surface of Mars through the infrared thermal chamber (ESA/Jaxa)

Affected by the mare coupling, we always look at Mars with the same face, so Hera has photographed his remote sidehis most unknown face. With 12.4 km in diameter, Deimos, a dark moon and covered with dust in potatoes could be a remnant of a great impact on Mars or an asteroid captured by the gravitational attraction of the planet.

During your overfruit, Hera used for the first time Three scientific instruments outside the Earth-Luna system: its black and white sensor used for autonomous navigation, its hyperspectral image sensor (which exceeds the limits of the human eye in terms of visible and infrared colors that it is capable of detecting) and its infrared thermal chamber.

In addition to the photos, the exercise has served as training for the main mission, but Dimorfo will be a much more complex objective of photographing: the 151 -meter diameter asteroid is Didimo’s moon, which measures 780 meters. The encounter between the probe and the asteroids should occur in December 2026. Two cubesats that travel inside Hera They will approach the asteroids.

Image | THAT

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