The Japan News on Nostr: NASA’s Lucy Finds Asteroid Dinkinesh’s Dynamic History ========== Asteroid ...
NASA’s Lucy Finds Asteroid Dinkinesh’s Dynamic History
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Asteroid Dinkinesh and its moonlet Selam, located in the main asteroid belt, have a dynamic history. NASA's Lucy spacecraft observed ridges, trough structures, and other characteristics on Dinkinesh that suggest a complicated past. Dinkinesh has a diameter of 720 meters, while Selam is made up of two lobes, each about 230 and 210 meters wide. It appears that a piece of rock broke free from Dinkinesh in the past, creating a trough on its surface and forming debris that fell back onto the asteroid as boulders to form a ridge structure. Selam is a contact-binary moonlet, the first observed orbiting another asteroid. The complex shape of Selam suggests that small asteroids may shed material multiple times, contributing to the formation of satellites. Understanding the properties of small asteroids like Dinkinesh and Selam helps in understanding the earliest phases of planet formation. NASA's Lucy spacecraft, named after the Ethiopian fossil Lucy, will visit the asteroid Donaldjohanson in 2025 as part of its 12-year mission to study asteroids.
#Nasa #LucySpacecraft #Asteroid #Dinkinesh #Selam #MainAsteroidBelt #PlanetFormation
https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/science-nature/science/20240627-194932/
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Asteroid Dinkinesh and its moonlet Selam, located in the main asteroid belt, have a dynamic history. NASA's Lucy spacecraft observed ridges, trough structures, and other characteristics on Dinkinesh that suggest a complicated past. Dinkinesh has a diameter of 720 meters, while Selam is made up of two lobes, each about 230 and 210 meters wide. It appears that a piece of rock broke free from Dinkinesh in the past, creating a trough on its surface and forming debris that fell back onto the asteroid as boulders to form a ridge structure. Selam is a contact-binary moonlet, the first observed orbiting another asteroid. The complex shape of Selam suggests that small asteroids may shed material multiple times, contributing to the formation of satellites. Understanding the properties of small asteroids like Dinkinesh and Selam helps in understanding the earliest phases of planet formation. NASA's Lucy spacecraft, named after the Ethiopian fossil Lucy, will visit the asteroid Donaldjohanson in 2025 as part of its 12-year mission to study asteroids.
#Nasa #LucySpacecraft #Asteroid #Dinkinesh #Selam #MainAsteroidBelt #PlanetFormation
https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/science-nature/science/20240627-194932/