Astronomy Picture of the Day - Ida and Dactyl: Asteroid and Moon

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod ^ | 28 May, 2023 | Image Credit: NASA, JPL, Galileo Mission

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: This asteroid has a moon. The robot spacecraft Galileo on route to Jupiter in 1993 encountered and photographed two asteroids during its long interplanetary voyage. The second minor planet it photographed, 243 Ida, was unexpectedly discovered to have a moon. The tiny moon, Dactyl, is only about 1.6 kilometers across and seen as a small dot on the right of the sharpened featured image. In contrast, the potato-shaped Ida is much larger, measuring about 60 kilometers long and 25 km wide. Dactyl is the first moon of an asteroid ever discovered -- now many asteroids are known to have moons. The names Ida and Dactyl are from Greek mythology.

[MtnClimber]

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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list.

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[Verginius Rufus]

Daktylos is the Greek word for "finger." It's also used for a metrical foot (dactyl) which has one long and two short syllables (just as the finger has one longer bone and two shorter bones). Dactylic hexameter is characteristic of Greek epic poetry (such as the Homeric poems) where the dactyl is the most common foot and each line has six feet.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Gigantic potatoes in space!! Bring out the frying oil!!!

[Red Badger]

Makes you wonder whatever happened to the planet these rocks came from..................