Major discovery from NASA; an asteroid with its own moon

NASA launched the Lucy spacecraft in October 2021 to study asteroids near Jupiter. Throughout its journey, it has been making remarkable discoveries. Today, the space probe has presented us with another interesting finding.

Researchers announced that during a flyby, Lucy discovered an asteroid named Dinky (Dinkinesh). What makes this object interesting is that it is the first asteroid Lucy has encountered and that it has its own moon.

AN UNEXPECTED SITUATION

According to the report on Webtekno, this is not a very rare occurrence. This situation, referred to as a binary asteroid, has been encountered in many celestial bodies before. However, scientists stated that this situation in Dinky was “unexpected.” Planetary scientist Jessica Sunshine commented on the matter, saying, “A binary system was definitely a possibility. But it was not expected. This is really great!”

NASA states that only one-third of the data on Dinky has reached Earth, so we still do not have much information. However, the available data and images show that the asteroid is covered in craters. This is most likely a situation caused by collisions with other asteroids. There is also not much information about the small asteroid next to Dinky. However, researchers say that more images will arrive soon and that the shape of the moon is strange. In other words, there is a high probability that we will obtain interesting information from this object.

Lucy, which is targeted to make contact with asteroids in 2025, will continue its research near Jupiter. The spacecraft has made interesting discoveries in the past as well. For example, in 2022, it discovered a “mini-moon” in the depths of our solar system that was thousands of times smaller than our own moon.

News Source: 12punto

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