NASA’s Lucy spacecraft, first launched in 2021 to trapped near Jupiter, has made an interesting discovery. The spacecraft found an asteroid, nicknamed Dinky, that actually has a smaller asteroid orbiting it, That’s right. It’s basically a moon with its own moon. It’s an ouroboros of cosmic curiosity. The technical term here is a binary asteroid …
This image shows the “moonrise” of the satellite as it emerges from behind asteroid Dinkinesh as … [+] seen by the Lucy Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (L’LORRI), one of the most detailed images returned by NASA’s Lucy spacecraft during its flyby of the asteroid binary. NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL/NOAO When NASA’s Lucy spacecraft conducted a flyby of …
This artist’s concept depicts the 140-mile-wide (226-kilometer-wide) asteroid Psyche, which lies in … [+] the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU In two weeks one of the highest profile space missions for years will launch from Florida. The launch window for NASA’s Psyche mission opens on Thursday, Oct. 5 and will see spacecraft …