2023-11-03 20:06:00
One asteroid with an even smaller one orbiting around it was recorded by the spacecraft Lucyyes NASA. For those who don’t know, the equipment was launched in 2021 with the aim of exploring Trojan asteroids near Jupiter and ended up making this discovery during a test for the team to improve their skills.
Even though it is not rare, since 15% of asteroids close to Earth are in this same situation, it is still interesting. Basically, it’s like a Moon with a smaller, even smaller Moon orbiting it. Called Dinkineshit has several craters in its structure, probably resulting from impacts with other asteroids.
Some images regarding the fact were revealed by NASA, but there is still more data to be sent to Earth. For now, only a third of the important information has been sent, but we can already notice some interesting details with what we can see so far, such as an equatorial ridge in the main body of “Dinky“.
A secondary ridge that emerges from the main one is also notable in the published images. In technical terms, it is a binary pair of asteroids. The idea of the test that generated the discovery was to find out whether Lucy’s probe would be able to attach itself to a space rock in high-speed situations.
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#NASA #spacecraft #discovers #asteroid #moon
