Unexpected 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 the addition of Dinkinesh, 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 a Dinkinesh binary system measuring 805 m across, while the smaller moon is 220 m across.

The Lucy spacecraft came within 260 miles of the asteroid Dinkinesh this week. The approach was 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 2.8 mph (4.5 km/h).

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

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