NASA spacecraft discovers tiny moon around asteroid during close flyby
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) 鈥� The little asteroid visited by NASA蘑菇视频 Lucy spacecraft this week had a big surprise for scientists.
It turns out that the asteroid Dinkinesh has a dinky sidekick 鈥� a mini moon.
The discovery was made during Wednesday蘑菇视频 flyby of Dinkinesh, 300 million miles (480 million kilometers) away in the main asteroid belt beyond Mars. The spacecraft snapped a picture of the pair when it was about 270 miles out (435 kilometers).
In data and images beamed back to Earth, the spacecraft confirmed that Dinkinesh is barely a half-mile (790 meters) across. Its closely circling moon is a mere one-tenth-of-a-mile (220 meters) in size.
NASA sent Lucy past Dinkinesh as a rehearsal for the bigger, more mysterious asteroids out near Jupiter. Launched in 2021, the spacecraft will reach the first of these so-called Trojan asteroids in 2027 and explore them for at least six years. The original target list of seven asteroids now stands at 11.
Dinkinesh means 鈥測ou are marvelous鈥� in the Amharic language of Ethiopia. It蘑菇视频 also the Amharic name for Lucy, the 3.2 million-year-old remains of a human ancestor found in Ethiopia in the 1970s, for which the spacecraft is named.
鈥淒inkinesh really did live up to its name; this is marvelous,鈥� Southwest Research Institute蘑菇视频 Hal Levison, the lead scientist, said in a statement.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute蘑菇视频 Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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