Having launched in 2021, the Lucy mission is on its way to explore the Trojan asteroids, which share the orbit ofand Jupiter. In a silver lining, however, this has given Lucy the chance to test its prowess on a minor world in the asteroid belt before reaching the Trojans, which are positioned at Jupiter'sOn Nov. 1, 2023, Lucy flew within 268 miles of Dinkinesh, which is affectionately nicknamed 'Dinky.
The larger asteroid is distinguished by a large trough that runs longitudinally around it, as well as an equatorial ridge that is overlaid on top of that trough and wraps around its rotational axis. Levison's team argues that these features are the result of a massive structural calamity that occurred when the asteroid's rotation was spun up by a phenomenon called the YORP effect.
Some of the material spun off from Dinkinesh fell back onto the asteroid, forming the equatorial ridge, while the rest coalesced to form two satellites. This, by the way, is the mechanism believed to have He's the author of"The Contact Paradox: Challenging Our Assumptions in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence" and has written articles on astronomy, space, physics and astrobiology for a multitude of magazines and websites.
Education Education Latest News, Education Education Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: SPACEdotcom - 🏆 92. / 67 Read more »