A hitchhiker’s guide to Hera’s target asteroids
ESA – A hitchhiker’s guide to Hera’s target asteroids Space Safety A hitchhiker’s guide to Hera’s target asteroids 23/09/2026 113 views 3 likes ESA / Space Safety / Hera Currently speeding through deep space at 12 km/s relative to Earth, ESA’s Hera spacecraft is due to reach its target Dimorphos asteroid this November. But if an astronaut were magically teleported onto the small-car-sized Hera upon arrival, what would they be seeing, and what would it feel like to walk on the asteroid’s surface? Size guide to Hera and its target asteroids To start with, Hera is actually headed for two asteroids rather than one. Dimorphos – at 151 m across about the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza – is actually orbiting around the mountain-sized 780-m diameter Didymos asteroid. Dimorphos orbits an average 1.15 km from its parent body, at a rate of just 18 cm/s. Both asteroids are made from relatively dark silicon-rich rock. Their rough surfaces possess comparable brightness to the lunar highlands, the…
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24 вересня 2026
