The little asteroid visited by NASA's Lucy spacecraft this week had a big surprise for scientists _ a mini moon. The spacecraft made the discovery during Wednesday's close flyby of the asteroid Dinkinesh in the main asteroid belt beyond Mars. The asteroid is only a half-mile across while its moon is a mere one-tenth-of-a-mile in size.
This photo provided by NASA shows a photo taken by the Lucy spacecraft during Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023 flyby of asteroid Dinkinesh, 300 million miles from Earth. It turns out Dinkinesh, which is only a half-mile across, has a dinky sidekick ... just one-tenth of a mile across. This little companion was a surprise to everyone. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The little asteroid visited by NASA’s Lucy spacecraft this week had a big surprise for scientists.
In data and images beamed back to Earth, the spacecraft confirmed that Dinkinesh is barely a half-mile across. Its closely circling moon is a mere one-tenth-of-a-mile in size.NASA shows off its first asteroid samples delivered by a spacecraft, 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 “you are marvelous” in the Amharic language of Ethiopia. It’s 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. “Dinkinesh really did live up to its name; this is marvelous,” Southwest Research Institute’s Hal Levison, the lead scientist, said in a statement.The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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