Earth seen from deep space by the Hera mission

Oct. 31 () –

The ESA has published how the Earth is observed from deep space through the various spectral bands of the HyperScout H instrument of the Hera mission.

Hera’s HyperScout H is a hyperspectral imager that views its targets in more colors than the human eye can distinguish, across 25 spectral bands ranging from the visible to near-infrared wavelength range of 650 to 950nm. These close-up images of Earth were produced by separating these wavelengths to show how the instrument works in practice, as observed on October 11 between 01:59 and 18:09 UTC.

False color images are displayed using the TwilightShifted ‘palette’: a color map ranging from blue-black to purplish-white to reddish-black to represent light intensity levels.

“This allows us to observe cloud patterns on our planet from a distance of almost 2,000,000 million kilometers and test the accuracy of our data processing algorithms,” he says. in a statement Marcel Popescu, a member of the instrument team at the University of Craiova in Romania.

After a successful launch on October 7, 2024, Hera’s instruments were activated for the first time as part of the spacecraft’s ongoing near-Earth commissioning phase.

On Thursday, October 10, and Friday, October 11, Hera’s upper asteroid deck, which houses the spacecraft’s instruments, headed toward our planet so its instruments could capture their first images of Earth and the Moon at a distance of more than a million kilometers.

“Once Hera reaches the asteroid Dimorphos, HyperScout H will explore its mineral composition“explains the instrument’s principal investigator Julia de León from the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands. “This first calibration test was an exciting experience, which demonstrated that both the instrument and its data processing chain work well.”

The shoebox-sized HyperScout H is the latest in a family of HyperScout imagers already flown in Earth orbit for Earth observation, produced by cosine Remote Sensing in the Netherlands with support from the ESA.

Next March, HyperScout H will also be among the Hera instruments to be used on Mars and the Martian moon Deimos, while the mission makes an approach to the red planet.

Hera is ESA’s first planetary defense mission, heading to visit the first asteroid whose orbit has been altered by human action. By collecting close-up data on the Dimorphos asteroid, which was hit by NASA’s DART spacecraft in 2022, Hera will help turn asteroid deflection into a well-understood and potentially repeatable technique.