In the February 2026 Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy (vol. 138 #1):
Voyatzis, G. Gkolias, I. Gaitanas, M. et al. Terminator periodic orbits around binary asteroids: an application to the ESA Hera mission 2 s10569-025-10274-y
Irregular shapes give irregular gravity fields. From a high-enough distance, an orbiter can appear to circle a “point” as an approximation, but that orbit’s not very handy for studying that non-point. The dynamics people are on the job. How do we approximate a non-sphere well enough to orbit it, without constant (sometimes impractical, rarely impossible) re-commanding from the ground? Voyatzis et al. are confident enough to propose it for Hera.