ESA - Planetary Defence - Archive

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ESA's Planetary Defence team

10 asteroids named to honour ESA’s role in Planetary Defence

13/01/2026 1909 views 33 likes

Observation of 40 000 near-Earth Asteroids

40 000 near-Earth asteroids discovered!

20/11/2025 4290 views 51 likes

ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter observes comet 3I/ATLAS – GIF

ESA pinpoints 3I/ATLAS’s path with data from Mars

14/11/2025 151264 views 215 likes

ESA’s Hera targets early arrival at Didymos asteroids

07/10/2025 2300 views 13 likes

French meteorite challenges asteroid hazard models

02/10/2025 1852 views 14 likes

ESA's Ramses mission at the asteroid Apophis

ESA and JAXA advance potential Apophis mission collaboration

27/08/2025 4358 views 61 likes

Asteroid (18805) Kellyday

First asteroid sightings push Hera’s camera to the limit

06/08/2025 5734 views 63 likes

ESA observes interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS

ESA tracks rare interstellar comet

03/07/2025 80595 views 500 likes

Flyeye's view of the Andromeda galaxy

ESA’s new asteroid hunter opens its eye to the sky

05/06/2025 8102 views 87 likes

Ramses mission patch

Second CubeSat joins ESA’s Ramses mission to asteroid Apoph…

20/05/2025 4122 views 69 likes

Cartoon Hera made using LEGO® bricks, designed by Frans Snik

Hera’s incredible adventures in brick building

13/03/2025 3208 views 31 likes

Sir Brian May and the rest of Hera's science team see Mars image arrive

Hera asteroid mission spies Mars’s Deimos moon

13/03/2025 23792 views 139 likes

Hera swings by Mars

Watch live: Images from Hera’s Mars flyby

10/03/2025 27911 views 119 likes

Ramses mission patch

First CubeSat joins ESA's Ramses mission to asteroid Apophis

05/03/2025 5421 views 51 likes

Asteroid 2024 YR4 impact risk rises and falls

Asteroid 2024 YR4 no longer poses significant impact risk

25/02/2025 28316 views 89 likes

Near-Earth objects

ESA endorses Year of Asteroid Awareness and Planetary Defen…

07/02/2025 9022 views 64 likes

Asteroid - artist's impression

ESA actively monitoring near-Earth asteroid 2024 YR4

29/01/2025 190681 views 145 likes

Hera fires its thrusters

Enabling & Support

Hera burns towards Mars

08/11/2024 5486 views 65 likes

ESA's Ramses mission to asteroid Apophis

ESA moves forward with Apophis mission preparations

17/10/2024 14074 views 128 likes

Hera's first images (Asteroid Framing Camera - Earth)

Hera’s first images offer parting glimpse of Earth and Moon

14/10/2024 15261 views 140 likes

Members of the Hera operations team on launch day

Hera takes flight: Didymos, here we come

10/10/2024 5055 views 54 likes

Planetary defence mission Hera heading for deflected astero…

07/10/2024 16684 views 44 likes

Hera launch animation still

Hera launch: how to watch

04/10/2024 21754 views 92 likes

ESA’s final observations of asteroid 2024 RW1

Asteroid 2024 RW1 impact – ESA analysis

09/09/2024 7203 views 18 likes

Debris from DART impact could reach Earth

06/09/2024 9725 views 50 likes

Hera departs ESA test centre

Goodbye Hera: asteroid mission departs ESA test centre

02/09/2024 2852 views 19 likes

Near-Earth objects

Two large asteroids safely pass Earth just 42 hours apart

24/06/2024 42326 views 43 likes

Meteor seen by Meteosat Third Generation Imager

Fireball witnessed by weather satellite

22/05/2024 5699 views 27 likes

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks

‘Mother of Dragons’ comet visible in the night sky

26/03/2024 190642 views 124 likes

Chelyabinsk asteroid trail

10 years preparing for 'Armageddon'

08/02/2024 6439 views 45 likes

Asteroid 2024 BX1 tracked prior to impact

Asteroid 2024 BX1 spotted three hours before impact

25/01/2024 9474 views 26 likes

Juventas studies asteroid's internal structure

Hera’s mini-radar will probe asteroid’s heart

10/08/2023 5753 views 65 likes

Hubble sees boulders escaping from asteroid Dimorphos

Science & Exploration

Hubble sees boulders escaping from asteroid Dimorphos

20/07/2023 11156 views 122 likes

Dimorphos asteroid seen by DART

Imagine walking on Hera’s asteroid

30/06/2023 4741 views 78 likes

Hera and its CubeSats at Didymos system

Precision deployer to put Hera’s CubeSats into asteroid orb…

29/06/2023 3804 views 41 likes

GRASS gravimeter on shaker

Instrument to measure asteroid gravity tested for space

22/05/2023 6737 views 66 likes

Hera, her CubeSats, and their rocky target destination

What colour is an asteroid? Hyperspectral imager to find out

24/04/2023 3276 views 44 likes

Science & Exploration

Webb detects extremely small main-belt asteroid

06/02/2023 13155 views 125 likes

Curious comet’s rare close approach

01/02/2023 35678 views 243 likes

Artist's impression of asteroid 21 Lutetia

Christmas challenge: find mystery asteroid

09/12/2022 11091 views 52 likes

Time-lapse photograph of 2022 WJ1 taken by astronomer Robert Weryk in Ontario, Canada

The sixth asteroid impact we saw coming

24/11/2022 60812 views 142 likes

ESA's Optical Ground Station

Enabling & Support

ESA’s site for laser and quantum links marks 25 years

18/11/2022 2981 views 52 likes

Artist's impression of asteroid 21 Lutetia

30 000 near-Earth asteroids discovered and rising

12/10/2022 20990 views 65 likes

LICIACube image of asteroid ejecta

First kinetic impact test succeeds in shifting asteroid orb…

12/10/2022 6389 views 55 likes

Science & Exploration

Webb and Hubble capture detailed views of DART impact

29/09/2022 13146 views 116 likes

Plume ejects from Dimorphos as DART impacts

ESA to capture light from deflected asteroid’s new plume

26/09/2022 25236 views 79 likes

DART impacting asteroid

ESA deep space network tracks DART asteroid impact

20/09/2022 15226 views 104 likes

Madrid meteor's cometary origins unearthed

09/08/2022 7027 views 63 likes

A busy field of stars hide once-risky asteroid 2021 QM1

Impact in 2052 ruled out as ESA counts down to Asteroid Day

29/06/2022 44505 views 73 likes

Space Safety & Security at ESA

New home for Earth’s protectors

12/04/2022 10251 views 67 likes

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