ESA’s asteroid detective has spotted its target—and there is a short animated explainer to watch

ESA published Hera’s first glimpse of the Didymos system on October 7, showing the target as a faint point against the stars. The image was captured at a distance of roughly 236,500 kilometers, before the spacecraft could resolve the two asteroids separately.

The mission is revisiting the system where NASA’s DART probe hit Dimorphos in 2022. Hera’s job is to examine the result and improve understanding of how a deliberate deflection changes an asteroid.

ESA also released a short animated “space detectives arrive” video introducing Hera and its two CubeSats. It is a rare piece of planetary science that is accessible to adults and kids without first reading a technical paper.

Open the actual image and video side by side. It is a good reminder that spacecraft navigation often begins with something less dramatic than a cinematic close-up: one tiny point of light and a lot of math.

What to do: Watch ESA’s four-minute Hera detective video with the boys and compare the first Didymos image with the DART impact story.