ESA's Hera Mission Flies by Mars, Captures Images of Deimos

The ESA's Hera mission, en route to asteroid Dimorphos, performed a Mars flyby on March 12. Approaching within 5,000 km, Mars' gravity altered Hera's trajectory, shortening the journey and saving fuel. Hera captured images of Deimos from as close as 1,000 km, observing its far side. Instruments including the Asteroid Framing Camera, Hyperscout H, and a thermal infrared imager from JAXA were used. Joint observations with ESA's Mars Express were also conducted. The data will aid planning for JAXA's MMX mission to explore Martian moons.