On 1 November, Lucy Mission flew past the first of the 10 asteroids on its mission, scheduled to last 12 years. And it turns out that the asteroid Dinkinesh is actually a party of two.

So let's discover it!

These images were taken by Dinkinesh from a distance of 270 miles (430 km) while zooming in at 10,000 mph (4.5 km/s) and reveal that the main belt asteroid, initially estimated to be a half-mile-wide asteroid, consists of two asteroids of different sizes. Based on a preliminary analysis of these initial images, the team estimates that the larger object is about 0.5 miles (790 m) across at its widest point, while the smaller one is about 0.15 miles (220 m) across.

Dinkinesh, meaning "You are marvellous", is the Amharic name of Lucy, the ancient hominid discovered in Ethiopia and for whom our spacecraft is named. Dinkinesh indeed lived up to its name.

Lucy successfully passed this flight in which Lucy's terminal tracking systems were tested. The team will use the data from this encounter to prepare for the next close look at an asteroid, the main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson, in 2025.

Image descriptions.
1) Two asteroids against black space. The larger one is a diamond-shaped grey dusty rock illuminated from the right. The smaller, mostly spherical rock can be seen behind the lower right edge of the larger one.

2) An animation of several images, taken 13 seconds apart, showing the small asteroid passing from left to right behind the spinning large asteroid. The apparent motion of the two asteroids is due to the motion of the spacecraft as it passes at 10,000 mph (4.5 km/s).