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Alain H\u00e9rique, Principal Investigator of the JuRa instrument on Hera\u2019s Juventas CubeSat at the Universit\u00e9 Grenoble Alpes, is passionate about the internal structures of Dimorphos and Didymos. He is almost certain that they are aggregates, but aggregates of what? Every asteroid is unique, with its own story. From Rosetta to Hera, H\u00e9rique has been working in radar systems to\u00a0 probe small bodies like comets and asteroids. JuRa is a 60MHz radar whose low frequency will enable it to penetrate the interior of this binary asteroid system. He can\u2019t wait for the first data to arrive!<\/p>\n
Hera is ESA’s first planetary defence mission, heading to a unique target among the 1.3 million known asteroids of our Solar System. On 26 September 2022 NASA\u2019s DART mission performed humankind\u2019s first test of asteroid deflection by crashing into the Great-Pyramid-sized Dimorphos moonlet. The result was a shift in its orbit around the mountain-sized Didymos main asteroid.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now comes ESA\u2019s own contribution to this international collaboration: the Hera mission will revisit Dimorphos to gather vital close-up data about the deflected body.<\/p>\n
Find more videos from Space Team Europe.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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