NASA’s Lucy spacecraft just completed a flyby of asteroid Dinkinesh, a small asteroid located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and discovered something new: a mini-moon in its small orbit.
Dinkinesh itself measures just half a mile across, and its tiny satellite is even smaller, with a diameter of approximately one-tenth of a mile.
The name “Dinkinesh,” which means “you are marvelous”, is the Amharic-language version of “Lucy”, the famous ancient human remains after which the NASA spacecraft was named.
The flyby served as a practice run for Lucy’s future encounters with the larger and more enigmatic Trojan asteroids.
The primary aim of the Lucy mission is to explore 11 of the Trojan asteroids that inhabit Jupiter’s orbit around the Sun, which are thought to be remnants from the early solar system. These Trojans may hold clues to understanding the history and formation of our planetary neighborhood. Lucy is expected to encounter the first Trojan asteroid in 2027.
Photo credit: Wikipedia
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