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Keyword: 243ida

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  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - The Images not Posted during the Government Shutdown - Ida and Dactyl: Asteroid and Moon

    12/02/2025 10:57:35 AM PST · by MtnClimber · 8 replies
    NASA ^ | 17 Oct, 2025 | Image Credit: NASA, JPL, Galileo Mission
    Explanation: This asteroid has a moon. The robot spacecraft Galileo enroute to explore the Jovian system in 1993, encountered and photographed two asteroids during its long interplanetary voyage. The second minor planet it photographed, 243 Ida, was discovered to have a moon. The tiny moon, named Dactyl, is only about 1.6 kilometers across and seen as a small dot to the right in the image. In contrast, Ida is much larger, measuring about 60 kilometers long and 25 km wide. In fact, Dactyl is the first moon of an asteroid ever discovered. But now many asteroids are known to have...