US National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA releases discovery data “Twin asteroids” which are considered an unexpected discovery. It emphasizes the wonder of space that still has many hidden secrets.
The image was taken on November 1, 2023, from NASA’s Lucy probe, which was in orbit. Asteroid 152830 Dinkinesh and encountered something unexpected before. That’s this asteroid. It is not a single star as astronomers understand it. But they orbit in pairs. The main star is about 790 meters wide and the smaller star is about 220 meters across. This image was taken before the Lucy probe made its closest orbit. From a distance of approximately 430 km.
The mission that resulted in important information this time It is a test step to lock the target into orbit to hover over the Dinkinesh asteroid in order to use orbital data for the main mission. is the orbit towards Eight asteroids in the future of the Lucy mission, because Dinkinesh is smaller than other asteroids
The Lucy mission is a project to explore 8 asteroids with the Lucy probe, 2 of which are in the main asteroid belt. It is between Mars and Jupiter and six other planets that orbit the Sun in the same orbit as Jupiter. It is a type of asteroid that astronomers call Jupiter trojan asteroids, which have two elliptical clusters in front and behind Jupiter at a distance of 60 degrees from the Sun. As of 2021, there are More than 9,800 Jupiter Trojan asteroids have been discovered so far.
The purpose of this survey is to study the birth of planets in the solar system because asteroids are rocky debris left over from the birth of the planets when the sun was first born about 4.5 billion years ago. The space agency’s often unstated objective is to find resources to replace Earth’s cities.
Asteroid 152830 Dinkinesh was discovered on November 4, 1999 by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) sky survey at Socorro. New Mexico state Observations of this discovery were published by the Minor Planet Center (MPC) on November 23, 1999.
Thank you for the reference: NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration / NASA Goddard
