\ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udea8On its second birthday in space, ESA’s Hera mission for planetary defence has spotted its asteroid destination for the first time, from an approximate distance of 236 500 km away!<\/p>\n
The Didymos system is actually two asteroids, seen as a single pixel for now
\nhttps:\/\/t.co\/cAS26tRyAr<\/p>\n
\u2014 ESA Operations (@esaoperations) October 7, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n ESA says that Hera was able to identify Didymos and its moonlet by combining multiple images and performing photometric analysis. In the picture, the two asteroids are only visible as a tiny pixelated dot, but they are finally in view.\u00a0\u201cWhen Hera reaches Didymos, it will perform a close-up investigation of the impact site and measure in detail how Dimorphos responded to DART\u2019s collision,\u201d ESA said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cThese measurements will help turn the DART impact experiment into a well-understood and potentially repeatable planetary defense technique.\u201d<\/p>\n What’s next for Hera?<\/p>\n On October 15, Hera will perform a braking maneuver to fine-tune its trajectory toward Didymos. The spacecraft will fire its orbit control thrusters for 93 minutes to come close to matching the velocity of the two asteroids. Later in November and December, Hera will enter the \u2018early characterization phase\u2019 to gather data on the asteroids\u2019 size, shape, and other aspects from a distance of 15.5-18.5 miles before entering the \u2018detailed characterization phase\u2019\u2014Hera will be at a distance of six miles at this point. After deploying two CubeSats, it will eventually move even closer, flying less than a mile away from the smaller asteroid Dimorphos.\u00a0<\/p>\n The mission team anticipates some surprises for Hera as it might enter a region filled with debris that resulted from DART\u2019s impact. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) was launched by NASA<\/a> in November 2021 with the objective of intentionally changing Dimorphos’ path and testing whether it would work in case a giant space rock heads toward Earth for collision. The spacecraft rammed into Dimorphos 10 months after launch, and post-impact analysis revealed that it altered the moonlet\u2019s orbital period around Didymos by approximately 33 minutes. What’s more, the impact ejected so much material that it even managed to alter the whole binary system’s orbital period around the Sun by 0.15 seconds<\/a>. The mission was a tremendous success, and now the Hera team is moving cautiously to carry out a post-impact survey.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of uncertainty, especially in terms of the asteroid\u2019s degree of tumbling due to the collision. We cannot simulate all probabilities but have to restrict ourselves to the more likely outcomes,\u201d Flight Dynamics Engineer Michael Mueller\u00a0stated<\/a>. \u201cThe prospect of some impact debris remaining in Dimorphos\u2019s vicinity has not been entirely ruled out. So potentially there might be surprises ahead, but this is an adventure we\u2019re looking forward to.\u201d<\/p>\n More on Starlust<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791768387623_23267efb34a8.jpg\")
Photos of the Didymos asteroid system captured by LICIACube 2 minutes and 40 seconds after DART’s impact into Dimorphos. (Image Source: NASA\/ASI\/University of Maryland)<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791768516743_c880ea148773.jpg\")
Artist’s illustration of Hera and its two CubeSats examining Didymos and Dimorphos asteroids. (Representative Image Source: ESA)<\/p>\n