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.
NASA's Lucy spacecraft, on its way to explore Jupiter Trojan asteroids, made an unexpected discovery during its flyby of the small main belt asteroid Dinkinesh. The first images returned by Lucy revealed that Dinkinesh is actually a binary pair, consisting of a larger body approximately 0.5 miles wide and a smaller body about 0.15 miles in size. This encounter served as an engineering test for the spacecraft's tracking system, which successfully autonomously tracked the asteroid as it flew past at 10,000 mph. The data collected will provide valuable insights into the nature of small asteroids.
Astronomers have discovered a white dwarf pulsar called J1912-4410, which is part of a binary pair that includes a red dwarf star. This is the second known white dwarf pulsar in the galaxy, and it challenges theoretical models describing white dwarfs. The white dwarf pulsar is cooler than the Sun, has a strong magnetic field, and spins on its axis 300 times faster than Earth does. The M-dwarf stellar companions also play a role in the pulsar activity. The discovery of J1912-4410 provides a critical step forward in understanding the origin of magnetic fields in white dwarfs.
