Asteroid Explorer Hera Shares First Image From Space

The first image taken by the Hera instrument (photo: dock. ESA)

JAKARTA After a successful launch on October 7, the Hera spacecraft shared the first images taken using its three instruments. This image was shared on October 14.

As a trial that the instrument worked well, the spacecraft photographed Earth from a distance of 1.4 to 1.6 million kilometers. This image was taken by the Termal Infrared Imaging (TIRI) instrument developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

From images shared on the official website of the European Space Agency (ESA), the TIRI instrument captures images of the Earth in the central part oriented to the Arctic at the top. In the top right corner of the image, the Moon's appearance can be seen.

In addition to using TIRI, Hera also took pictures of the Earth using an optical camera and a multicolor HS-H spectroscopy camera. As a result, the Earth looks clearer and feels quite close to Hera even though the actual distance is almost 2 million kilometers.

This image shared shows that TIRI, optical cameras, and multicolor HS-H spectroscopy cameras can function properly. All of these instruments will later be used to take pictures of asteroids Dimorphos and Didymos.

"TIRI will take pictures of asteroids Dimorphos and Didymos in mid-infrared wavelengths and measure temperature distribution," the ESA said. "(This instrument) is inherited from the mid-infrared TIR camera on the Hayabusa2 spacecraft."

ESA, the developer of the asteroid rover, explained that TIRI will work by obtaining thermal inertia in each surface area. That way, Hera can find out the size of the grains and roughness of the asteroid's surface.