NASA’s Lucy’s science team found that one of the mission’s Trojan asteroid targets, Polymele, has a tiny moon of its own. This discovery was made when Polymele was expected to pass in front of a star, enabling the team to observe the star blink out as the asteroid briefly blocked, but this target just so happened to be outlined by the star behind it.
A total of 14 teams reported observing the star blink out as it passed behind the asteroid, but two of them were unlike the others. How so? These two observers detected an object around 200 km (about 124 miles) away from Polymele that measures roughly 3 miles in diameter. The distance observed between the two was approximately 125-miles, but an official name for this satellite will not be given until the team can accurately determine its orbit. Now we just need to wait for NASA’s Psyche spacecraft to get off the ground and start orbiting a purported $10-quintillion asteroid.
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Lucy’s tagline started out: 12 years, seven asteroids, one spacecraft. We keep having to change the tagline for this mission, but that’s a good problem to have,” said Tom Statler, Lucy program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
