Nov 3, 2023 at 10:25 PM Update: 8 hours ago
The small asteroid that was examined by NASA last week appears to have its own ‘mini moon’. Spacecraft Lucy took photos of the discovery on Wednesday.
The asteroid, named Dinkinesh, is barely 790 meters wide. The NASA vehicle passed a major asteroid belt in which Dinkinesh is located, just beyond Mars, on Wednesday.
Lucy took a photo of the pair when they were about 275 miles away. The mini moon is only 220 meters wide, the images show.
NASA sent Lucy past Dinkinesh as practice for a larger mission to asteroids near Jupiter. Lucy was launched in 2021 and will reach the first so-called Trojan asteroids in 2027. The vehicle will explore there for at least six years.
Dinkinesh means “you are great” in the Amharic language of Ethiopia. It is also the Amharic name for Lucy. That name was given to the more than three million year old remains of a human ancestor that were found in Ethiopia in the 1970s.
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Image: AP
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Universe and space travelScienceTech
2023-11-03 21:25:58
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