APOD: 2023 May 28 Б Ida and Dactyl: Asteroid and Moon
Explanation:
This asteroid has a moon.
The robot spacecraft Galileo on route to
Jupiter
in 1993 encountered and photographed two
asteroids during its long interplanetary voyage.
The second minor planet it photographed,
243
Ida, was
unexpectedly
discovered to have a moon.
The tiny moon, Dactyl, is only about 1.6 kilometers across and seen as a
small dot on the right of the sharpened
featured image.
In contrast, the
potato-shaped Ida is much larger,
measuring about 60 kilometers long and 25 km wide.
Dactyl is the first moon of an asteroid ever discovered --
now many asteroids are
known to have moons.
The names Ida and Dactyl are from
Greek mythology.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
