NASA's Lucy spacecraft made its first asteroid flyby. But when it returned the images it took, there was a surprise in store: a second, even smaller asteroid.
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft is on its way to the orbit of Jupiter to study the asteroids there, called Trojans. Recently, while on its trip, it made a quick flyby of another small asteroid called Dinkinesh. The spacecraft confirmed its flyby of the asteroid this week, but when it returned the images it took, there was a surprise in store: a second, even smaller asteroid tucked up next to Dinkinesh.
The pair are similar to the asteroid binary that NASA deliberately crashed a spacecraft into last year for the DART mission, according to the team. Related As well as being a first opportunity to study these asteroids, the flyby was also used as a test of Lucy’s ability to lock onto an asteroid and point its instruments at the target.
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