Didymos

Hera Gets First Close Look at Dimorphos as Europe Moves to Verify Asteroid Deflection Science

Europe’s Hera spacecraft has captured its first detailed view of Dimorphos, the battered asteroid moonlet altered by NASA’s DART impact mission, marking a critical step in one of planetary defense’s most closely watched experiments. The images begin the long process of assessing how much the collision changed the asteroid’s shape, surface, and orbit, with implications that extend from space science to future climate-risk planning and global resilience.