On November 5, 2026, the European Space Agency (ESA) reported that Hera’s monochrome Asteroid Framing Camera had captured Didymos from 60 kilometers away. The frame shows a side that NASA’s DART camera had not seen shortly before impact. Didymos is clear, while most of its smaller companion, Dimorphos, is in shadow. ESA’s mission update describes boulders, craters and apparent grooves or ridges on Didymos.
What Hera’s close-up shows
ESA gives Didymos’s diameter as 780 meters and Dimorphos’s as 151 meters. Hera’s view shows the larger body clearly, but shadow obscures most of Dimorphos. Hera principal investigator Patrick Michel described a central ridge around Didymos’s equator, along with boulders, craters and patterns that look like grooves or ridges.
Hera’s image adds a new view of Didymos; the origin of its apparent surface patterns is a question for the mission to investigate.
How the view fits the DART mission
Hera is examining the Didymos system after NASA’s DART spacecraft struck Dimorphos. ESA separately reported that the impact shortened Dimorphos’s orbit around Didymos by 33 minutes, give or take one minute. The close-up documents the asteroids’ appearance; the orbital change is a separate mission result. For background on Hera’s approach to the system, see NeoTeo’s earlier coverage of its planned arrival at Didymos.
What might explain the surface features
ESA mission scientist Michael Kueppers said some of the characteristics may be related to impact-ejected material traveling roughly one kilometer from Dimorphos to Didymos. He described this as a possibility for the mission to investigate. ESA also said detailed images of both asteroids were due to be unveiled on November 25.
