Aster › Space program › 152830 Dinkinesh
152830 Dinkinesh
Position on the route: 18/181 · level needed 64 · journey (Mk0 engine) 8.2 h
By the numbers
| Diameter | ≈ 790 m |
|---|---|
| Year | 3.2 years |
| Moon | Selam |
| Lucy | 1 November 2023 |
The story
Dinkinesh is a small main-belt asteroid found by LINEAR in 1999. Its name is the Amharic name (‘you are marvellous’) of the Lucy hominid fossil found in Ethiopia. It was a rehearsal target on Lucy’s way to the Trojan asteroids.
When Lucy passed at about 430 km on 1 November 2023, there was a small surprise: Dinkinesh is a binary, and its moon Selam is a ‘contact binary’, two rocks resting against each other. A structure never seen before.
Missions
- Lucy (NASA, 2023): the flyby and the discovery of Selam
Colony note
A small binary; a mining outpost.
What probes bring back
- NASA’s Lucy passed at about 430 km on 1 November 2023: the 790 m asteroid turned out that day to be a binary.
- Its companion Selam (‘peace’) is itself a ‘contact binary’ of two rocks joined together: the first satellite of that kind ever seen.