I remember the first time it was discovered that an asteroid had moons, when a review of Galileo data indicated that Ida, which Galileo had flown by,
had a little companion moon that was subsequently named Dactyl. I don't think anyone was really surprised that asteroids had moons, as there are so many little chunks of rock in the belt that it's not a shock a little chunk got gravitationally bound to a much bigger one.
So, when asteroid Florence came close by Earth a few days ago, a relatively routine radar scanning observation program revealed that Florence has not just one, but two little rocky companions. Which means that there are probably hundreds of asteroids with mini-moons, even if we can't see them.
Read about it here:
Close Encounter by the [Big!] Asteroid Florence
And here's a radar image of the big one and the little ones along for the orbital ride.
No comments:
Post a Comment