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Moon (Dactyl) Discoved Orbiting Asteroid Ida

Posted by chrisd on from the trying-to-resist-bad-uranus/asteroids-joke dept.

Dot.Sig writes "Here is a picture and short description of an asteroid with its own moon." Taken by galileo during it's trip to jupiter. Sort of like those pics you take out the car window.... Here is the requisite NASA Press Release. Who names these thing, anyway? Not the first asteroid to be found to have a moon, but interesting regardless.

2 of 16 comments (clear)

  1. This is news? by Captain+Nitpick · · Score: 1, Informative

    The picture was taken in 1993.

    --
    But then again, I could be wrong.
  2. Ida is first known asteroid with moon... by heimotikka · · Score: 3, Informative
    In this page it says:

    Galileo's two planned visits to the asteroid belt provided the first and second opportunities for close observation of these bodies: in October 1991 the spacecraft flew by asteroid Gaspra, obtaining the world's first close-up asteroid images; in August 1993 it flew by a second asteroid, Ida, and discovered the first confirmed asteroid moon.

    I saw this "news" long time ago in a magazine - and it seems that actually this is the first known asteroid with moon. Date in press release you linked is September 20, 1994... It just happened to be chosen as a astronomy picture of the day. Quite old news for the first page?