NASA’s Lucy spacecraft did a flyby of the Dinkinesh asteroid in the main belt of the space rocks beyond Mars and confirmed that the asteroid was in fact a pair.
Scientists had theorized that there might be two asteroids since they saw the brightness of Dinkinesh change over time, indicating an orbital shadow.
On Wednesday, the Lucy spacecraft confirmed the theory, sending back images of the smaller rock orbiting the main Dinkinesh asteroid. The two rocks are about 300 million miles away from Earth, according to The Associated Press.
Dinkinesh is the smallest asteroid in the main belt to be observed up close by scientists. Lucy flew by as a test of an autonomous tracking system, capturing the images while going 10,000 mph about 270 miles away from the asteroids.
The larger of the two space rocks is around 2,640 feet at its widest point, while the smaller is about 792 fee, NASA explained.
“We knew this was going to be the smallest main belt asteroid ever seen up close. The fact that it is two makes it even more exciting,” Keith Noll, a scientist working on the Lucy project from Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said in a news release.
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