CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A small asteroid visited by NASA’s Lucy spacecraft this week gave scientists a big surprise.
It turns out that the Dinkinesh asteroid has a small sidekick – a mini-moon.
The discovery was made during Wednesday’s flyby of Dinkinesh, 300 million miles (480 million kilometers) away in the main asteroid belt beyond Mars.
The spacecraft took a picture of the pair when it was about 270 miles (435 kilometers) away.
In data and images beamed back to Earth, the spacecraft confirmed that Dinkinesh measured nearly half a mile (790 meters). The moon’s closest orbit is only one-tenth of a mile (220 meters).
Dinkinesh is only half a mile (790 meters) away. The moon’s closest orbit is only one-tenth of a mile (220 meters). AP The encounter was an “amazing” surprise for scientists.NASA/SwRI/JHopkins APL/NOAO/SWNS
NASA sent Lucy past Dinkinesh as a practice for a larger, mysterious asteroid near Jupiter. Launched in 2021, the spacecraft will reach the first of these so-called Trojan asteroids in 2027 and explore it for at least six years. The original target list of seven asteroids is now at 11.
Dinkinesh means “you are great” in Ethiopian Amharic. It is also the Amharic name for Lucy, the 3.2-million-year-old remains of a human ancestor discovered in Ethiopia in the 1970s, after which the spacecraft is named.
“Dinkinesh really lives up to its name; this is extraordinary,” Hal Levison of the Southwest Research Institute, lead scientist, said in a statement.
The discovery was made during Wednesday’s flyby of Dinkinesh, 300 million miles (480 million kilometers) away in the main asteroid belt beyond Mars.NASA/Goddard/SwRI/SWNS Dinkinesh means “you are great” in the Ethiopian Amharic language.NASA/ SWNS
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