This image shows the “moonrise” of the satellite, now called Selam, as it emerges from behind asteroid Dinkinesh as seen by the Lucy Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LLORRI), one of the most comprehensive images returned by NASAs Lucy spacecraft during its flyby of the asteroid binary. This image was taken at 12:55 p.m. EDT (1655 UTC) on November 1, 2023, within a minute of closest technique, from a variety of around 270 miles (430 km). Credit: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/ Johns Hopkins APL/NOAO
The satellite discovered during the very first asteroid encounter of NASAs Lucy objective has an official name. On November 27, 2023, the International Astronomical Union authorized the name “Selam” or ሰላም, which implies “peace” in the Ethiopian language Amharic, for Dinkineshs moon.
” Dinkinesh is the Ethiopian name for the fossil nicknamed Lucy,” states Raphael Marshall of the Observatoire de la Côte dAzur in Nice, France, who initially identified Dinkinesh as a prospective target of the Lucy objective. “It appeared suitable to call its satellite in honor of another fossil that is often called Lucys child.” The fossil Selam, found by Zeresenay Alemseged in 2000 in Dikika, Ethiopia, belonged to a 3-year-old girl of the very same species as Lucy; though the “baby” in fact lived more than 100,000 years before Lucy.
A false-color picture of the asteroid Dinkinesh and its satellite, Selam, developed utilizing information collected by the NASA Lucy spacecrafts color imager, the Multi-spectral Visible Imaging Camera, MVIC, on the LRalph instrument. This MVIC image was gotten about 100 seconds before closest technique on Nov. 1, 2023. The orange, green and violet MVIC filters were mapped to the red, green, and blue channels to develop this image. Credit: NASA/Goddard/SwRI
The Lucy spacecraft flew by Dinkinesh and Selam on November 1, 2023. While observations leading up to the encounter had actually hinted that there was something intriguing going on in this system, the team was surprised to discover that not only did Dinkinesh have a satellite, however that the satellite was a contact-binary, the first contact-binary satellite ever observed.
A false-color image of the asteroid Dinkinesh and its satellite, Selam, developed utilizing data collected by the NASA Lucy spacecrafts color imager, the Multi-spectral Visible Imaging Camera, MVIC, on the LRalph instrument. In addition to the images taken by Lucys high-resolution LLORRI cam and its Terminal Tracking Cameras (T2Cam), Lucys other science instruments also gathered data that will assist scientists comprehend these perplexing asteroids.
A pair of stereoscopic images of the asteroid Dinkinesh and its satellite, Selam, produced using information collected by the LLORRI camera on the NASA Lucy spacecraft in the minutes around closest method on November 1, 2023. To use this image set to get a much better sense of the 3D structure of the asteroids, either unwind the axes of your eyes, as if staring through the screen to infinity (so that you are looking at the left image with your left eye and the right image with your right eye), or use a stereoscope. After an Earth gravity help in December 2024, the spacecraft will return to the primary asteroid belt where it will come across asteroid Donaldjohanson in April 2025.
The team has actually finished downlinking encounter data from Lucys very first asteroid encounter and is continuing to process it. The Dinkinesh encounter was included in January of this year as an in-flight test of the spacecrafts systems and instruments, and all systems performed well. The tools and strategies refined with data from this encounter will help the group prepare for the objectives main targets, the never-before-explored Jupiter Trojan asteroids. In addition to the images taken by Lucys high-resolution LLORRI cam and its Terminal Tracking Cameras (T2Cam), Lucys other science instruments also gathered information that will assist researchers understand these puzzling asteroids.
On November 1, NASAs Lucy spacecraft flew by not simply its very first asteroid, however its very first two. The first images returned by Lucy expose that the small primary belt asteroid Dinkinesh is actually a binary set. Credit: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center
The 2 components of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center provided LRalph instrument, the Multi-spectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) and Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array (LEISA), both successfully observed the two asteroids from a variety of perspective around closest technique. Throughout the encounter, the 2 components scanned throughout the asteroids surfaces, enabling the group to put together color images and spatially-resolved spectra of the things.
” To assemble the final images, we should carefully account for the movement of the spacecraft, however Lucys accurate pointing info makes this possible,” stated Amy Simon of NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. “These images will assist researchers comprehend the structure of the asteroids, enabling the group to compare the makeup of the Dinkinesh and Selam and to understand how these bodies may be compositionally connected to other asteroids.”
A pair of stereoscopic images of the asteroid Dinkinesh and its satellite, Selam, produced using data collected by the LLORRI camera on the NASA Lucy spacecraft in the minutes around closest approach on November 1, 2023. To utilize this image pair to get a better sense of the 3D structure of the asteroids, either relax the axes of your eyes, as if staring through the screen to infinity (so that you are looking at the left image with your left eye and the right image with your right eye), or use a stereoscope. These images have actually been processed to boost contrast, and the evident range in between Selam and Dinkinesh has actually been synthetically decreased to facilitate simultaneous stereo view of the two items. Credit: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/ Johns Hopkins APL/NOIRLab for the initial images/Brian May/Claudia Manzoni for stereo processing of the images
The Arizona State University-supplied Lucy Thermal Emissions Spectrometer (LTES) likewise spotted the asteroids, although, unlike the future Trojan asteroid targets, they filled only a little portion of the instruments large field of view. Scientists expect that the information will mainly offer insight into the surface area homes of the larger asteroid, Dinkinesh.
” LTES was able to find and measure the temperature level of the system for about nine minutes as the spacecraft zipped at its closest technique,” said Phil Christensen of Arizona State University, Tempe. “Different-sized particles, such as sand, pebbles, and boulders, heat up in a different way as the asteroid turns. The LTES temperature measurements will enable us to study the size and physical properties of the products on the asteroids surface.”
Lucy is anticipated to go to 9 more asteroids over the next decade in 6 different encounters. After an Earth gravity assist in December 2024, the spacecraft will return to the primary asteroid belt where it will come across asteroid Donaldjohanson in April 2025. Lucy will pass through the primary belt and reach the objectives primary targets, the Jupiter Trojan asteroids, in 2027.