ESA's Hera Captures Images of Mars' Moon Deimos

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Hera spacecraft, en route to the Didymos asteroid system, successfully flew past Mars on March 14, 2024. The flyby, which brought Hera within 5,000 kilometers of Mars, used the planet's gravity to adjust its trajectory, saving fuel and shortening the journey.

During the encounter, Hera activated its scientific instruments, capturing images of the Martian surface and Deimos, Mars' smaller moon. The spacecraft's instruments included a black-and-white camera, a hyperspectral imager, and a thermal infrared imager.

Hera is part of the Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA) collaboration, along with NASA's DART mission, aiming to study the effects of the DART impact on the asteroid Dimorphos and develop asteroid deflection techniques.