A 麻豆原创 researcher is part of a team that recently discovered significant insights into the size and surface composition of Dinkinesh, an asteroid that NASA鈥檚 Lucy mission will visit in November.
Using observations from telescopes in Spain and the U.S., the team found that Dinkinesh is remarkably small, making it the smallest asteroid to be approached by Lucy. They also found that it is a stony, or S-type, asteroid composed of mainly silicates and some metal.
The results were published recently in a letter to the journal .
Launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in October 2021, NASA鈥檚 12-year Lucy mission is sending a space probe to 10 asteroids, two in the main asteroid belt first and then eight Trojan asteroids near Jupiter. It will reach Dinkinesh, one of the main belt asteroids, on Nov. 1.
Learning more about surface variations of asteroids will give more insight into the role that small debris and collisions played in forming our solar system, says Noem铆 Pinilla-Alonso, study co-author and a planetary scientist with 麻豆原创鈥檚 .
鈥淚n addition to being smaller, Dinkinesh distinguishes itself from the Trojans, the main targets of the Lucy mission, by exhibiting a different composition,鈥� Pinilla-Alonso says. 鈥淲hile the Trojans are carbonaceous asteroids with volatile components, similar to those found in the outer regions of the main asteroid belt, Dinkinesh is a stony asteroid commonly found in the inner regions of the main belt. These stony asteroids are denser and enriched with magnesium and iron silicates.鈥�
The findings will be critical for planning the Lucy mission鈥檚 data acquisition strategy at the time of the flyby, the researchers say.
Pinilla-Alonso says there is still some uncertainty to the exact size of Dinkinesh, but their findings suggest a size range from as small as about 1,700 feet wide to as large as about 4,000 feet wide. This means that Dinkinesh will be the smallest asteroid visited by Lucy.
鈥淐onstraining this result from ground-based observatories would require a long baseline of observations carried out along several months,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he flyby will certainly provide a more accurate estimation of the size and shape of this object.鈥�
Study co-authors also included lead author Julia de Le贸n with the Instituto de Astrof铆sica de Canarias and the Universidad de La Laguna in Spain; Javier Licandro with the Instituto de Astrof铆sica de Canarias and the Universidad de La Laguna; Nicholas Moskovitz and Theodore Kareta with the Lowell Observatory in Arizona; and Marcel Popescu with the Astronomical Institute of the Romanian Academy in Romania.
Funding included support from the ACIISI, Consejer铆a de Econom铆a, Conocimiento y Empleo del Gobierno de Canarias and the European Regional Development Fund; the Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science (CLASS), a NASA鈥檚 SSERVI team funded in Cooperative Agreement Notice 3, and a grant of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation.
Pinilla-Alonso joined 麻豆原创 in 2015 as an associate scientist in planetary science at the Florida Space Institute. She has also been the deputy principal scientist of the Arecibo Observatory since 2017. She received her doctorate in astrophysics and planetary sciences from the Universidad de La Laguna in Spain.
