Entertainment

Surprise! That object NASA’s Lucy mission uncovered is actually two things

Dinkinesh and its contact binary satellites seen just 6 minutes after Lucy came in closest contact with the asteroids. Credit: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL

NASA’s Lucy mission is seeing double. NASA announced Nov. 2 the spacecraft found that its first target, Dinkinesh, is orbited by a smaller satellite. If that wasn’t enough, recent data found the satellite is actually two objects in permanent contact with one another, known as a contact binary.

“We’d been puzzling over odd variations in Dinkinesh’s brightness that we saw on approach, which gave us a hint that Dinkinesh might have a moon of some sort, but we never suspected anything so bizarre!” said John Spencer, Lucy deputy project scientist, in a NASA news release.

The Lucy Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (L’LORRI) took this picture of the objects on Nov. 6, six minutes after the mission’s closest approach and approximately 1,010 miles (1,630 km) away. Initial images of the Dinkinesh system, which revealed the moon, did not catch the contact binary because one lobe sat directly behind the other from that point of view.

Although researchers said in the NASA release that such two-lobed asteroids are common in the solar system, we have had few opportunities to get pictures of them. One such opportunity was New Horizons’ pass of the Kuiper belt object Arrokoth (previously known as Ultima Thule), which also turned out to be a contact binary.

“I would have never expected a system that looks like this. In particular, I don’t understand why the two components of the satellite have similar sizes. This is going to be fun for the scientific community to figure out,” said Lucy principal investigator Hal Levison.

Lucy found that Dinkinesh itself comes in at about 0.5 mile (790 meters) at its widest, while the smaller pair measures 0.15 mile (220 m) across.

The Lucy team chose the target in early 2023 as a method of checking the mission’s tracking and imaging systems and will continue to download data from the encounter.

Lucy’s next objective involves heading toward Earth for a gravity assist in December of next year. The craft will then take images of DonaldJohanson, which is five times the size of Dinkinesh, on April 20, 2025. Then Lucy will begin its primary mission to study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids in 2027.

Related Posts

‘Goonies’ Sequel ‘Curse of One-Eyed Willy’ Is Releasing in Theaters in Summer 2026?

The 1985 classic film “The Goonies” was a hot topic of discussion on social media in early 2024, with users sharing news of a sequel title and poster….

QG Part 1 – (Hindi) Official Trailer | Vivek Kumar Kannan | Sunny Leone | Jackie Shroff | Priyamani

QG Part 1 – (Hindi) Official Trailer | Vivek Kumar Kannan | Sunny Leone | Jackie Shroff | Priyamani The plot centers around a mysterious protagonist who embarks…

Aranmanai 5 – Official Trailer | Sundar.C | Vijay sethupathi | Yogi babu | Hiphop Tamizha

“Aranmanai 5” is a cinematic masterpiece that opens up a world of mystery and suspense with its distinctive blend of supernatural and eerie elements. The story unfolds in…

CHUCKY vs M3GAN: Blumhouse Teases Epic Showdown in 2024

Blumhouse Productions has just released the highly anticipated teaser trailer for their upcoming 2024 horror crossover, CHUCKY vs M3GAN. The film brings together two of the most iconic…

The Boy 3: The Curse Continues – Official Trailer Released

The chilling new installment of The Boy franchise, titled The Boy 3: The Curse Continues, has finally unveiled its official trailer for 2024, and it promises to bring…

WINTER CHAINSAW MASSACRE | Teaser Trailer 2025 | Netflix

𝑁𝑒𝑡𝑓𝑙𝑖𝑥 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑊𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑎𝑤 𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑒 (2025), 𝑎 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑠ℎ 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑐𝑦 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑎𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝐿𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒. 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟-𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑑 ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑠𝑒𝑡𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *