Hera spacecraft spots Didymos asteroid system for the first time

ESA's Hera spacecraft has detected the Didymos-Dimorphos binary asteroid system from roughly 146,954 miles away, combining images to identify it as a faint point. Dimorphos was struck by NASA's DART spacecraft in 2022, and Hera is traveling to inspect the impact's aftermath. The mission will soon perform a braking maneuver and later begin characterizing the asteroids' size, shape, and other properties.

Hera, an ESA planetary-defense mission, has detected the Didymos–Dimorphos pair from about 146,954 miles away. By stacking multiple exposures and analyzing their light, the spacecraft resolved the system as a single faint point against background stars. Dimorphos, the smaller body, was intentionally struck by NASA’s DART probe in September 2022.

The DART impact shortened Dimorphos’s orbit around Didymos by roughly 33 minutes and released debris that slightly changed the pair’s solar orbit. Hera is scheduled to fire thrusters for 93 minutes on October 15, then study the asteroids’ size, shape, and post-impact environment before deploying CubeSats.

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