Lucy Mission Discovers Second Asteroid and Mini Moon During Flyby
TL;DR Summary
NASA's Lucy mission, designed to explore Jupiter's Trojan asteroid swarms, encountered a surprise when it flew by the small asteroid Dinkinesh in the main asteroid belt. What was initially thought to be a single asteroid turned out to be a binary pair of space rocks. The larger asteroid is estimated to be half a mile wide, while the smaller one is 0.15 miles across. The close approach allowed Lucy to test its equipment and collect data on small asteroids, providing valuable insights for future missions. Lucy's ultimate goal is to provide high-resolution images of the Trojan asteroids, shedding light on the formation of our solar system.
- Lucy mission spots second asteroid during flyby CNN
- NASA spacecraft discovers tiny moon around asteroid during close flyby The Associated Press
- NASA’s Lucy mission makes ‘marvelous’ discovery of second asteroid during Dinkinesh flyby Fox Weather
- Mini moon: Nasa spacecraft discovers asteroid orbited by its own tiny satellite The Guardian
- Daily Telescope: Lucy finds not one but two diamonds in the sky Ars Technica
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