NASA confirmed that asteroids can have moons

Mondo Science Updated on 2024-03-06

Asteroid butyl.

NASA's spacecraft Lucy discovered an incredible phenomenon while flying by the main-belt asteroid Dinkish, which the mission team called "Butyl".

An unexpected sight.

It discovered that the asteroid had a tiny "moon". Jessica Sanson, the mission's co-investigator, told Scientific American, "Double stars are certainly possible, but it's not expected, and it's really cool." ”

Partial data.

The team received only part of the data. The spacecraft is still sending color** and other information. Still, Dingki's ** shoot was just a test for Lucy.

Practice running.

Lucy had to "grab" a rock at tens of thousands of miles per hour, shoot the **, and send it back to Earth. It was not an easy task, but the test was successful.

Lucy's mission.

According to Scientific American, the team is now confident in Lucy's ability to carry out the real mission launched in 2021: to study the Trojan asteroid.

Near Jupiter.

These asteroids share Jupiter's orbit around the Sun. There are thousands of Trojan horses, but Lucy will only study and record six.

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