Surprise discovery of hidden 'companion' of asteroid Dinkinesh

Asteroid Dinkinesh and its surprising companion

Dinkinesh is located in the solar system's main asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. However, what astronomers thought was one asteroid turned out to be two separate bodies.

Lucy mission chief investigator Hal Levison of the Southwest Research Institute (USA) said that naming the asteroid Dinkinesh, which means "wonderful" in the Ethiopian language, was indeed the right decision.

"At the beginning of the Lucy mission, we planned to fly by a total of seven asteroids. With Dinkinesh, the two moons, and now Dinkinesh's surprise satellite, we can finally study 11 targets," CNN quoted expert Levison.

The Lucy mission team believes the larger asteroid is now the Dinkinesh binary, measuring 805 metres across, while the smaller moon is 220 metres across.

The Lucy spacecraft came within 260 miles of the asteroid Dinkinesh this week. The approach was designed to test the spacecraft’s instruments, including its target tracking system, which allows the spacecraft to automatically locate the asteroid and keep it in view while traveling at a speed of 2.8 miles per hour.

Data collected through the flyby also allowed the NASA team to study small asteroids and compare them with larger asteroids from previous missions.

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