NASA continues to amaze the whole world with the discoveries it makes, and today we are talking about an extremely important one that continues to show us how little we know about the universe in which we exist. According to NASA researchers, the asteroid Polymele has a moon orbiting it, an important discovery that will bring even more mysteries to the rocks that are constantly moving through the universe, some heading towards Earth.
NASA states that the asteroid Polymele has a diameter of approximately 27 kilometers, and its moon has a diameter of approximately 5 kilometers, the distance between the two objects being 200 kilometers. The proximity between them makes it impossible to make clear observations on the basis of which NASA can say where exactly the moon that the Polymele asteroid has come from, but the simple discovery of such a type of cosmic object is something that shows us how much more we have to see in the universe.
NASA Announces Impressive Discovery, Asteroid That Has a "Moon"
NASA managed to observe this asteroid thanks to a space probe called Lucy, which was sent into outer space to analyze more asteroids that are far from Earth. Polymele is over 770 million kilometers from the Earth, and its observation and its moon was only possible because it passed at a given moment between a star and the Earth, so that it was highlighted by it , and could be measured by NASA scientists.
NASA is trying to obtain more information about this asteroid, but it is as clear as possible that the discovery itself is an extremely important one that could support other observations in the future. Polymele is part of a group of several asteroids that are currently being monitored by NASA as they travel through the solar system, without having any trajectory that will bring them very close to Earth in the future.
“On March 27, Lucy's science team discovered that the smallest of the mission's Trojan asteroid targets, Polymele, has a satellite of its own. That day, Polymele was expected to pass in front of a star, allowing the team to observe the star twinkling while the asteroid blocked or briefly obscured it.
Those two observers detected an object about 200 km (about 124 miles) away from Polymele. It had to be a satellite. Using the occultation data, the team estimated that this satellite is about 3 miles (5 km) in diameter and orbits Polymele, which is about 17 miles (27 km) along its axis. further."
NASA He's looking with attention to many asteroids in the universe, but wants to analyze as many of them as possible for future missions that will also allow the deviation of the trajectories of some that could threaten the Earth.
