ESA's Hera spacecraft has imaged the asteroids Didymos and Dimorphos as two separate bodies for the first time. The image was taken on the night of 18 October 2026 by the Asteroid Framing Camera, from about 1,280 km away from the pair, which was roughly 197 million km from Earth.
Until now, Hera's camera had only ever seen the system as a single point of light. In the new image, Dimorphos spans only about one pixel, but it is clearly separated from Didymos. According to ESA scientist Michael Kueppers, with this image the smaller asteroid becomes visible for the first time.
Didymos is about 780 metres across and Dimorphos about 151 metres, roughly the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza. The two orbit each other at an average distance of 1.15 km.
The image followed October's braking manoeuvres, which cut the spacecraft's relative speed to about 20 metres per second. Hera launched on 7 October 2024, and its arrival in the system was scheduled for 4 November 2026.
Why Dimorphos matters
Dimorphos is the first object in the Solar System to have had its orbit measurably shifted by human action: on 26 September 2022, NASA's DART spacecraft struck the moonlet at about 6.1 km/s and shortened its orbit around Didymos by roughly 33 minutes. The Hera mission will measure Dimorphos's mass, shape and internal structure and assess the impact's effects, to refine planetary defence strategies.
According to ESA, the first detailed images of Dimorphos will be released on 25 November 2026 as the spacecraft closes in. Mission manager Ian Carnelli said the team is seeing, for the first time, through Hera's own eyes the double asteroid system the mission was designed and built for.
Hera also carries two CubeSats, Milani and Juventas, which will be released to analyse the mineral composition of the impact site and probe Dimorphos's interior with ground-penetrating radar.
Update to our coverage: read the earlier article on Hera's approach at Hera freia pela segunda vez a 2.300 km e mira chegada a Didymos em 4 de novembro.
Image credit: illustration of the Hera spacecraft in front of the double asteroid Didymos and Dimorphos, German Aerospace Center (DLR).
Sources
- ESA Hera spacecraft images Didymos and Dimorphos as separate asteroids — Aieon, based on ESA
- ESA's Hera Images Didymos and Dimorphos — EduFabTech, based on ESA
- Hera Resolves Asteroid Pair in Deep Space — TS2 Tech
Transparency: this article was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence, cross-checked against public posts and internet sources. Please consult the original sources for more details.
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