The tiny natural satellite was found orbiting an asteroid.
Astronomers may have detected a previously undiscovered"mini-moon" in the solar system: a rocky object orbiting a small asteroid near Jupiter. If the rocky satellite, which is just a little wider than the width of Manhattan, is confirmed to be a proper moon, it would be one of the smallest moons ever spotted.
The Lucy probe was launched on Oct. 16, 2021, and will arrive at the Trojan asteroids in late 2027, after making a quick stop in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Until then, Lucy mission scientists are trying to learn more about some of these mysterious rocks to help identify where the probe can be most useful.
After reviewing the data, the team concluded that the second blip"had to be a satellite," lead researcher Marc Buie, an astronomer at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, said in a NASA statement.The newly discovered satellite has a diameter of about 3 miles and is separated from the 17-mile-wide Polymele by a distance of around 125 miles . At the time of the observation, Polymele was around 480 million miles from Earth.
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