Daily Telescope: Lucy continues to surprise astronomers with its first flyby
Enlarge / This image shows the asteroid Dinkinesh and its satellite as seen by the Lucy Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (L'LORRI) as NASA's Lucy Spacecraft departed the system. (credit: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL)
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Good morning. It is November 8, and yes, we're headed back out to the Lucy mission again. NASA has shared some additional information about an asteroid flyby last week, and there's more goodness to share.
A few days ago, the Daily Telescope reported that the Lucy spacecraft had found not one but two asteroids during its flyby of the small main-belt asteroid Dinkinesh. It turns out that was not the whole story. Subsequent data downlinked from the spacecraft revealed that the smaller of the two asteroids is a contact binary-two smaller asteroids in contact with one another.