Hera Spacecraft Spots Crash-Hit Asteroid Dimorphos

Far away in deep space, an exciting cosmic detective journey is taking place. On 3 November 2026, the European Space Agency’s robotic probe achieved an important milestone during the Hera spacecraft asteroid mission. Flying roughly 197 million kilometres away from Earth, the spacecraft successfully managed to capture its very first view of two famous space rocks, known as Didymos and Dimorphos. Instead of seeing them as a single blurred dot of light, Hera spotted both objects clearly separated from one another in the dark sky.

This historic view was captured using the spacecraft’s monochromatic Asteroid Framing Camera from a distance of approximately 1,280 kilometres away. Scientists and engineers back on Earth celebrated this achievement because it proves the spacecraft is right on track. It is flying toward a crash site unlike anything else ever studied in our solar system.

What happened?

To capture this remarkable image, Hera had to perform some very delicate manoeuvres. The spacecraft successfully completed two major braking burns that slowed it down to just 20 metres per second relative to the asteroid pair. This slow speed allowed its sensitive camera to distinguish between the two rocks.

The main body, Didymos, is a substantial asteroid measuring about 780 metres across. That makes it nearly as tall as Dubai’s world-famous Burj Khalifa skyscraper. In contrast, its companion moonlet, Dimorphos, spans about 151 metres across, which is roughly the size of Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza. Little Dimorphos circles Didymos at an average separation of 1.15 kilometres, moving along at a slow speed of approximately 18 centimetres per second.

This specific pair of rocks is famous across the world. Dimorphos is the exact space rock that NASA’s DART spacecraft intentionally smashed into on 26 September 2022. That powerful collision was designed to test whether humans could change an asteroid’s path, and it successfully shortened Dimorphos’s orbital period by 33 minutes.

Hera mission manager Ian Carnelli highlighted that Dimorphos is the first celestial body in the solar system to have its orbit intentionally altered by human action. Now, Hera is visiting to inspect the result of that impact.

Hera project scientist Michael Kueppers explained that although Dimorphos takes up only about one pixel in the early image, it is clearly separated from its parent body. Hera will arrive at the system to begin close-up studies in November 2026, unveiling detailed views starting 25 November 2026. Later, in early 2027, Hera will deploy two smaller CubeSats named Milani and Juventas to study the surface and internal structure of Dimorphos.

Sources

• sciencedaily.com
• space.com
• phys.org
• ancientskies.org
• dlr.de
• orbitalradar.com

This story was prepared by the Kids Gazette news desk with the help of AI research and writing tools, using the sources listed above.

Author: Kids Gazette Desk.