The European Space Agency's Hera probe has captured its first clear view separating the 780-meter-wide Didymos and its 151-meter-wide companion, Dimorphos, from a distance of about 1,280 kilometers. Recent thruster maneuvers successfully reduced the spacecraft's relative approach speed to 20 meters per second. Over the coming months, Hera and two companion CubeSats will measure Dimorphos's mass, structure, and composition to determine if the prior impact formed a crater or completely reshaped the body. Mission officials plan to publicly release the first detailed images of the moonlet on November 25.
Key points
Hera's mission aims to clarify why the asteroid's orbital shift was far larger than initi…: Hera's mission aims to clarify why the asteroid's orbital shift was far larger than initial computer models anticipated.
The spacecraft and two deployed CubeSats will investigate whether the impact created a si…: The spacecraft and two deployed CubeSats will investigate whether the impact created a simple crater or completely reshaped Dimorphos.
Detailed observations of the system are intended to validate kinetic impact as a dependab…: Detailed observations of the system are intended to validate kinetic impact as a dependable planetary defense technique.
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- Date:
- November 3, 2026
- Source:
- European Space Agency (ESA)
- Summary:
- Europe’s Hera spacecraft has captured its first clear view of two asteroids involved in NASA’s historic 2022 experiment to redirect a potentially dangerous space rock. Now approaching the pair, Hera will investigate the mysterious aftermath of the collision and uncover why the asteroid shifted far more than scientists predicted.
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The European Space Agency's Hera spacecraft has reached an important milestone in its mission to investigate a historic asteroid collision. For the first time, its onboard camera has captured the two asteroids Didymos and Dimorphos as separate objects rather than a single point of light.
The asteroid pair is currently about 197 million kilometers from Earth. Hera obtained the new image on the evening of October 18 using its black-and-white Asteroid Framing Camera, while the spacecraft was approximately 1,280 kilometers from its targets.
"With this image, the smaller Dimorphos asteroid becomes visible for the first time," explains Michael Kueppers. "Before this acquisition, the spacecraft was still resolving the Didymos system as a single…
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