The ESA Hera
2026 Workshop

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DATE

May 10th - 14th, 2026

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LOCATION

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

(and also onlinE)

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REGISTRATON & FEES

https://indico.physics.auth.gr/event/24/page/39-registration-fees

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PROGRAMME

https://indico.physics.auth.gr/event/24/page/40-program

and to be downloaded here

SUNDAY 10 MAY

at Main Ceremony Hall

Opening & Public talk

19:00 – 20:00 Patrick Michel for “Defending the Earth from Asteroid Impacts: the European space missions Hera and RAMSES”

General mission update & Highlights

20:00 – Welcome Reception

Registration

MONDAY 11 MAY

At KEDEA Building + Dept. of Education

09:00 – 09:05 Welcoming participants

General Updates

09:05 – 09:20 Ian Carnelli for Hera Mission status

09:20 – 09:40 Michael Kueppers for Hera Instruments update

09:40 – 10:00 Patrick Michel for Hera Science update

Short Reviews

10:00 – 10:20 Seiji Sugita for Albedo-based space weathering observation proposed for Didymos and Dimorphos: lessons learned from Itokawa, Deimos, and Phobos

10:20 – 10:40 Alex Meyer for Post-DART Dynamics in the Didymos System

10:40 – 11:00 Petr Pravec for A change of the rotation period of Didymos caused by the DART impact and observations of possible Hera extended mission targets

11:00 – 11:30 Coffee Break

Working Group 2 updates

11:30 – 11:45 A. Migliorini for Investigating the asteroid and meteorite link, in support to the Hera mission

11:45 – 12:00 P. Tanga for Ground-based shape determination of Dimorphos system by diffraction

Working Group 1 updates

12:00 – 12:15 S. Raducan for Post-impact ejecta re-accumulation on Dimorphos and implications for Hera gravity measurements

12:15 – 12:30 J. Ormo for Pounding Imparts Internal Strength To Rubble-Piles

12:30 – 12:40 E. Frizzel for Seismic Surface Modification of Dimorphos: Linking Impact-Driven Particle Rearrangement to Bulk Stiffness

12:40 – 12:50 M. Weber for HyperVelocity Impacts using laser shock: new developments and applications to Planetary Defense

12:50 – 13:00 WG4 / HLPs splinters’ preparation

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch

14:00 – 14:40 WG4/HLP Splinters #1: Groups 1,3,5

14:40 – 15:20 WG4/HLP Splinters #2: Groups 2,3,4

15:20 – 16:00 WG4/HLP Splinters #3: Groups 1,3,4

16:00 – 16:30 Coffee Break

16:30 – 17:10 WG4/HLP Splinters #4: Groups 1,2,5

17:10 – 17:40 WG4/HLP Splinters #5: Groups 4,2,5

17:45 – 18:00 S. Chocron for Mechanical Testing and Impact Simulations of Aba Panu Meteorite

Room Color Code:

• Main meeting room (KEDEA Building) - BLUE -

• Room#2 (Education Building) - RED -

• Room #3 (Education Building) - GREEN -

High Level Products (HLP) Groups:

1. Dimorphos orbital state & Gravitational acceleration

2. Satellites / Debris / Dust ejection & Non-gravitational acceleration

3. Shape / Volume & Internal structure Density and Porosity distribution

4. Geomorphology (global description of the surface) & Mechanical properties derived from local and geomorphological studies

5. Optical and thermal properties & Composition and space weathering

TUESDAY 12 MAY

KEDEA Building

09:00 – 09:15 Fiorangela La Forgia for Rotationally Resolved Spectroscopy of Didymos-Dimorphos binary system up to two years from the impact

Working Group 3

09:15 – 09:30 Dan Scheeres for Internal mass distribution for Bennu using OSIRIS-REx data

09:30 – 09:45 Paolo Tortora for Advanced Radio Science Frameworks for the Estimation of the Didymos-Dimorphos Dynamical and Physical State

09:45 – 10:00 Iosto Fodde for Tidal Dissipation in Dimorphos

10:00 – 10:15 Xiaoyu Fu for DART Impact Ejecta Evolution in the (65803) Didymos System

10:15 – 10:30 Jeanne Bigot for Evolution of sesquinary DART ejecta re-impacting on Didymos

10:30 – 10:45 Sébastien Charnoz for Mass redistribution at the surface of Dimorphos after the DART impact: observational implications for HERA Rendez-Vous

10:45 – 11:00 Wen-Han Zhou for Eclipse-Driven Thermal Cracking in Binary Asteroids

11:00 – 11:30 Coffee Break

11:30 – 11:45 Masatoshi Hirabayashi for Characterizing Didymos's reshaping scale due to falling ejecta-driven mass wasting

11:45 – 12:00 Lorenzo Fiaccadori for Machine Learning Analysis of DART Ejecta Dynamics and Predictability Limits

12:00 – 12:15 Adriano Campo Bagatin for PEANUTS: Pipeline for the Estimation of Asteroid iNternal strUcTureS

12:15 – 12:30 Christos Efthymiopoulos for 3D analytical theory for the perturbed Didymos - Dimorfos post-impact orbital and rotational state

12:30 – 12:45 Nicollo’ Stronati for Dynamical features of (65803) Didymos under different interior mass distributions

12:45 – 13:00 Manuel Perez-Molina for Estimating asteroid volumes by exploiting the 2nd Pappus theorem

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch

14:00 – 14:15 WG 1 / 2 / 3 wrap-up: WG1, WG2, WG3

14:15 – 14:30 WG4 splinters wrap-up: WG4

14:30 – 15:00 Coffee Break + Posters

15:30 – 17:30 Archaeological Museum Visit & Guided Tour

19:30 – Conference Dinner at “Horizons” Restaurant

Posters

Ingrid Daubar: Experimental Constraints on Impact-Induced Changes to Boulder Distributions

Ileana Uccheddu: Post-DART rotational state of Dimorphos

Okada Tatsuaki: Thermal infrared imaging of Didymos and Dimorphos by TIRI

Yaqiong Wang: Gravity Modeling of Irregular Small Body through a Dynamic Lagrangian Mascon Framework

Harald Steinlechner: Pro3D for analysis of multilayered 3D-data in HERA

Tzu-Heng Chang: Numerical Modeling of Asteroid Internal Structure for the Hera Mission

WEDNESDAY 13 MAY

KEDEA Building

09:00 – 09:15 Edoardo Gramigna forAnalysis of Hera Radio Science Data during Cruise Phase and Mars Flyby

09:15 – 09:30 Timothy Titus for Mars as a calibration source for TIRI

09:30 – 09:45 Andrea Farina for Cross-Calibration of Hera/HyperScout-H with MEx/OMEGA and MRO/CRISM Using Mars Observations

09:45 – 10:00 Carolyn Ernst for Updates to the Deimos Shape Model and a Reassessment of the DART/LICIACube-based Shape Model

10:00 – 10:15 Filippo Tusberti for New Insights Into the Didymos Surface: Geological Map Using Both DART/DRACO and Unexplored LICIACube/LUKE Images

10:15 – 10:30 Naomi Murdoch for Surface mechanical properties overview

10:30 – 10:45 Onur Celik for Oblique low-speed impact cratering with implications for Didymos

10:45 – 11:00 Alessia Cremasco for Simulations of the Milani CubeSat surface interaction on Didymos: maximizing the scientific return of an opportunistic landing

11:00 – 11:30 Coffee Break

11:30 – 11:45 Josep M. Trigo-Rodriguez for Mechanical properties and reflectance spectra of chondritic regolith from laboratory experiments

11:45 – 12:00 George Prodan for Compositional characterisation of asteroid Didymos from ground-based spectra: what to expect at Hera’s arrival

12:00 – 12:15 Maddalena Mochi for Mean temperature of a spherical body on an elliptic orbit

12:15 – 12:30 Roberto Paoli for A complete linear model for the Yarkovsky thermal force for objects on non-circular orbits

12:30 – 12:45 Alain Herique for JuRa Radar: tomography processing developpement and validation using scaled measurements on asteroid analog models.

12:45 – 13:00 Alexia Duchene for Using the Planetary Altimeter (PALT) measurements to determine the mass of Dimorphos

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch

End of Community Meeting

14:00 – 18:00 SOWG Meeting (by invitation only)

THURSDAY 14 MAY

09:00 – 18:00 SOWG Meeting (by invitation only)

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FURTHER INFORMATION ON THIS WORKSHOP:

CONFERENCE VENUE

The main Conference venue is Aristotle University of Thessaloniki’s KEDEA Building,
Metro, Line 1, “Sintrivani” station.

https://www.auth.gr/en/venues-en/

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

https://kedea.rc.auth.gr/info.html

You can contact the organisation team at hera2026@physics.auth.gr 

https://www.auth.gr/
https://www.auth.gr/en/homepage/