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Event date: Reported information

ESA announces Hera’s close observations of Didymos and Dimorphos

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The European Space Agency announced on 11 November 2026 that Hera is studying Didymos and its moonlet Dimorphos from 25–30 kilometres away. The spacecraft is investigating the consequences of DART’s 2022 impact on Dimorphos.

Artist’s impression of the Hera concept in 2015.
2015 concept; illustration, not a current photograph. ESA – Science Office, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/; unchanged. — ESA – Science Office / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/ ; illustration de concept de 2015 ; sans modification.

According to ESA, the system’s weak gravity requires nearly straight flight segments corrected by manoeuvres that form so-called rectangular orbits. Observations are intended to help establish Dimorphos’s structure, mass and changes following the impact.

Controlled from Darmstadt, Germany, Hera is scheduled to move closer for more detailed study in December. That remains a planned step. The announcement describes an ongoing observation campaign rather than a final answer about the crater’s shape or the full extent of changes to the asteroid.

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