Data provided by Lucy about Dinkinesh asteroid surprises scientists: What did this probe find?

NASA's Lucy spacecraft recently completed its first asteroid flyby, and the new data has left scientists astounded. The initial surprise came from the revelation of the double nature of the asteroid Dimorphos — it has a relatively small moon. However, the real shocker was when it was discovered that Dimorphos had not one but two moons, revealing it to be a triple system.

Dimorphos served as an engineering target for the Lucy spacecraft on its way to study Jupiter's Trojan asteroids. NASA's team slightly adjusted the probe's course to allow it to fly as close as possible to the sub-kilometer-sized asteroid. This close approach enabled them to test the probe's scientific instruments and data-gathering automation. As the probe will whiz past its target asteroids in Jupiter's orbit at tremendous speeds, it will have only minutes to collect data.

NASA has not yet disclosed details about the spacecraft's scientific instruments, but it has shared high-resolution images. These images yielded unexpected surprises. During the close flyby of the 790-meter-wide Dimorphos, it was discovered that it had a small 220-meter moon, forming a binary system. A series of images, taken at 13-second intervals, showed the small moon orbiting the larger one.

The surprises didn't end there. When the spacecraft took another image five minutes later, as it moved further away from the asteroid, scientists were astounded to find that the smaller moon appeared as a tight binary system. "We never suspected anything so bizarre!" admitted NASA specialists.

Hal Levison, the chief scientist of the Lucy mission from the Southwest Research Institute, said, "This is, to say the least, puzzling. I never expected the system to look like this. In particular, I don't understand why the two components of the moon are the same size. The scientific community will be intrigued to unravel this mystery."

More data regarding Dimorphos is expected to be released by NASA once the information from the spacecraft is fully processed. In April 2025, the probe will also make another flyby of an asteroid as part of an additional mission. Lucy is set to approach Jupiter's Trojan asteroids in 2027 and will complete its flybys in 2033.