- Oil execs work COP29 as NGOs slam lobbyist presence
- Gore says climate progress 'won't slow much' because of Trump
- 'Megaquake' warning hits Japan's growth
- Stiff business: Berlin startup will freeze your corpse for monthly fee
- Wars, looming Trump reign set to dominate G20 summit
- Xi, Biden attend Asia-Pacific summit, prepare to meet
- Kyrgios to make competitive return at Brisbane next month after injuries
- Dominican Juan Luis Guerra triumphs at 25th annual Latin Grammys
- Landslide win for Sri Lanka president's leftist coalition in snap polls
- Australian World Cup penalty hero Vine takes mental health break
- As Philippines picks up from Usagi, a fresh storm bears down
- Tropical Storm Sara pounds Honduras with heavy rain
- Pepi gives Pochettino win for USA in Jamaica
- 'Hell to heaven' as China reignite World Cup hopes with late winner
- Rebel attacks keep Indian-run Kashmir on the boil
- New Zealand challenge 'immense but fantastic' for France
- Under pressure England boss Borthwick in Springboks' spotlight
- All Blacks plan to nullify 'freakish' Dupont, says Lienert-Brown
- TikTok makes AI driven ad tool available globally
- Japan growth slows as new PM readies stimulus
- China retail sales pick up speed, beat forecasts in October
- Asian markets fluctuate at end of tough week
- Gay, trans people voicing -- and sometimes screaming -- Trump concerns
- Argentina fall in Paraguay, Brazil held in Venezuela
- N. Korean leader orders 'mass production' of attack drones
- Pakistan's policies hazy as it fights smog
- Nature pays price for war in Israel's north
- New Zealand's prolific Williamson back for England Test series
- Mexico City youth grapple with growing housing crisis
- After Trump's victory, US election falsehoods shift left
- Cracks deepen in Canada's pro-immigration 'consensus'
- Xi inaugurates South America's first Chinese-funded port in Peru
- Tyson slaps Paul in final face-off before Netflix bout
- England wrap-up T20 series win over West Indies
- Stewards intervene to stop Israel, France football fans clash at Paris match
- Special counsel hits pause on Trump documents case
- Japan's Princess Mikasa, great aunt to emperor, dies aged 101
- Cricket at 2028 Olympics could be held outside Los Angeles
- Trump names vaccine skeptic RFK Jr. to head health dept
- Ye claims 'Jews' controlling Kardashian clan: lawsuit
- Japan into BJK Cup quarter-finals as Slovakia stun USA
- Sri Lanka president's party headed for landslide: early results
- Olympics 'above politics' say LA 2028 organisers after Trump win
- Panic strikes Port-au-Prince as residents flee gang violence
- Carsley hails England's strength in depth as understudies sink Greece
- Undefeated Chiefs lose kicker Butker to knee injury
- Wallabies winger Vunivalu signs for La Rochelle
- Musk met Iran UN ambassador on defusing tension under Trump: NYT
- Vinicius misses penalty as Brazil held in Venezuela
- World's tallest teen Rioux won't make college debut until 2025
RBGPF | 100% | 61.84 | $ | |
CMSC | -0.24% | 24.55 | $ | |
NGG | 0.4% | 62.37 | $ | |
GSK | -2.09% | 34.39 | $ | |
RELX | -0.37% | 45.95 | $ | |
RIO | -0.31% | 60.43 | $ | |
SCS | -0.75% | 13.27 | $ | |
AZN | -0.38% | 65.04 | $ | |
BCC | -1.57% | 140.35 | $ | |
JRI | -0.23% | 13.21 | $ | |
RYCEF | -4.71% | 6.79 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.02% | 24.725 | $ | |
BP | 1.65% | 29.05 | $ | |
VOD | -0.81% | 8.68 | $ | |
BTI | 0.2% | 35.49 | $ | |
BCE | -1.38% | 26.84 | $ |
Mission to probe smashed asteroid launches despite hurricane
Europe's Hera probe successfully launched Monday on a mission to inspect the damage done by a NASA spacecraft that smashed into an asteroid during the first test of Earth's planetary defences.
Despite fears that an approaching hurricane could delay the launch, the probe blasted off on a SpaceX rocket into cloudy skies from Cape Canaveral in the US state of Florida just before 11:00 am local time (1500 GMT).
Hera's mission is to investigate the aftermath of NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), which deliberately crashed into the Dimorphos asteroid in 2022 roughly 11 million kilometres (6.8 million miles) from Earth.
The fridge-sized DART spacecraft successfully knocked the asteroid well off course, demonstrating that humanity may no longer be powerless against potentially planet-killing asteroids that could head our way.
The European Space Agency (ESA) said that Hera will conduct what it has dubbed a "crime scene investigation".
"Hera will gather the data we need to turn kinetic impact into a well-understood and repeatable technique on which all of us may rely one day," ESA chief Josef Aschbacher said on the agency's broadcast of the launch.
The tense liftoff on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket was met with applause from teams on the ground.
"We had a lot of tears -- and outside in the public event, people were jumping around and spilling their beers," ESA broadcast host Matthew Russell said.
Around an hour after liftoff, Hera then separated from the rocket in space, beginning its two-year journey towards Dimorphos.
There was more applause minutes later when the team on the ground received the first signal from the spacecraft, indicating a successful launch.
- Hurricane, rocket anomaly -
The launch had been put into doubt by the intensifying Hurricane Milton, with SpaceX warning on Sunday that there was only a 15 percent chance of a launch.
Milton is the latest hurricane to hit the Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Helene, which has killed at least 230 people since striking Florida late last month.
Hurricane Milton has been classified as "an extremely dangerous category 4 hurricane" and is expected to slam into the state by mid-week.
NASA said it will delay the launch of its Europa Clipper mission, which had been scheduled from Cape Canaveral on Thursday, due to "anticipated hurricane conditions" as Milton moves east across Florida over the week.
Hera's launch had also faced a potential delay due to an anomaly involving a Falcon 9 rocket during the launch of SpaceX's Crew-9 astronaut mission late last month.
But on Sunday, the US Federal Aviation Administration gave the last-minute green light, saying the nature of the problem posed little risk for Hera.
Next year, Hera is planned to get a gravitational boost as it flies past Mars, arriving near Dimorphos in December 2026 to begin its six-month investigation.
Dimorphos, which is actually a moonlet orbiting its big brother Didymos, never posed a threat to Earth.
After DART's impact, Dimorphos shed material to the point where its orbit around Didymos was shortened by 33 minutes -- proof that it was successfully deflected.
Analysis of the DART mission has suggested that rather than being a single hard rock, Dimorphos was more a loose pile of rubble held together by gravity.
"The consequence of this is that, instead of making a crater" on Dimorphos, DART may have "completely deformed" the asteroid, said Hera's principal investigator Patrick Michel.
- Nothing heading our way -
The 363-million-euro ($400 million) mission will be equipped with two nanosatellites.
One will land on Dimorphos and probe inside the asteroid with radar, a first on such an asteroid. The other will study its composition from farther out.
An asteroid wider than a kilometre (0.6 miles) -- which could trigger a global catastrophe on a scale that wiped out the dinosaurs -- is estimated to strike Earth every 500,000 years or so.
An asteroid around 140 metres (460 feet) wide -- which is a little smaller than Dimorphos but could still take out a major city -- hits our home planet around every 20,000 years.
There are also no known 140-metre asteroids on a collision course with Earth -- but only 40 percent of those space rocks are believed to have been identified.
O.Brown--AT