space NASA's Lucy Probe Discovers Surprise Contact Binary at Dinkinesh Contact binary systems, where two smaller objects are in contact with each other, are not uncommon in the solar system. However, it's a rare occurrence to find one of these systems orbiting another asteroid.
space NASA's Lucy Mission Discovers a Surprise Asteroid During Dinkinesh Flyby The encounter primarily served as an in-flight test of Lucy's tracking system, designed to autonomously track asteroids as the spacecraft zooms past at speeds of up to 10,000 mph. Despite Dinkinesh's small size, the system performed admirably.
space NASA's Lucy Spacecraft Captured Lunar Eclipse From Space Over the course of about three hours, the spacecraft made 86 1-millisecond exposures. They were then sent back to Earth to be combined into a video. In the resulting video, the Earth and its satellite can be seen about 360,000 km apart.
