NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Unlocks Asteroid Dinkinesh’s Dynamic History

The asteroid Dinkinesh, a denizen of the solar system's main asteroid belt, in multiple images taken by the NASA Lucy Spacecraft's L'LORRI Instrument. NASA/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL/NOIRLab/Handout via Reuters

WASHINGTON—A little asteroid called Dinkinesh—visited last November by NASA’s Lucy spacecraft—has a surprisingly dynamic history, according to scientists, along with its moonlet Selam that is comprised of two bodies that gently melded into one.

Dinkinesh and Selam are the smallest asteroids from our solar system’s main asteroid belt, located between the planets Mars and Jupiter, ever seen up close by a spacecraft. Lucy observed ridges, trough structures, and other characteristics on Dinkinesh that hint at a complicated past for the asteroid and its companion, the researchers said on Wednesday.