Surprise! Lucy Discovers Binary Asteroid System at Dinkinesh Flyby
Dinkinesh and its newly-discovered companion, observed by Lucy.
Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/SwRI/JHUAPL/NOIRLab
Yesterday, the Lucy spacecraft successfully performed its close flyby of asteroid Dinkinesh, which in fact turns out to be not one but two asteroids! The images acquired at closest approach to the asteroid system has revealed that Dinkinesh is made up of one larger asteroid and one smaller one in orbit around the primary body. The Lucy flight dynamics team at KinetX successfully navigated the spacecraft through its closest approach transition to its terminal tracking phase, and continues to track and reconstruct the trajectory during and beyond the encounter. More information about the encounter and discovery can be found at nasa.gov. Go Lucy!
