NASA’s Lucy mission provides pictures of the Solar System’s celestial building blocks.
Panels a, b, and c each show stereographic image pairs of the asteroid Dinkinesh taken by the NASA Lucy Spacecraft’s L’LORRI Instrument in the minutes around closest approach on Nov. 1, 2023. The yellow and rose dots indicate the trough and ridge features, respectively. These images have been sharpened and processed to enhance contrast. Panel d shows a side view of Dinkinesh and its satellite Selam taken a few minutes after closest approach.
The team suspects that the celestial conjoined twin satellite was formed in part, due to Dinky’s high spin speed. Uneven reflection of sunlight on the asteroid’s surface can cause the high speed. Even though both Dinky and Salem are quite small, their importance is massive. They demonstrate how pieces of celestial material come together — or accrete, as astronomers say — to form new bodies.
Dinkinesh and its satellite are the first of 11 asteroids that Lucy plans to explore over its 12-year journey. Next year, Lucy will cruise past an asteroid belt created by collisions. Data from that pass will improve the understanding of how asteroids break apart.
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