152830 Dinkinesh

152830 Dinkinesh (provisional designation 1999 VD57) is a small, stony main-belt asteroid 900 meters (3,000 feet) in diameter. It was discovered by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) survey at Socorro, New Mexico on 4 November 1999. This asteroid was identified as a flyby target for NASA's Lucy mission in January 2023, which will approach 450 km (280 mi) from the asteroid on 1 November 2023.[4] Dinkinesh will be Lucy's first and smallest flyby target and it will become the smallest main-belt asteroid visited by a spacecraft yet.[4] It was identified as a target by Raphael Marschall, mission collaborator of the Nice Observatory, after Lucy had launched.[4] The asteroid does not exhibit a detectable light curve, suggesting it could either be roughly spheroidal, rotating pole-on, or rotating very slowly.[3]

152830 Dinkinesh
Discovery[1]
Discovered byLINEAR
Discovery siteLincoln Lab ETS
Discovery date4 November 1999
Designations
(152830) Dinkinesh
1999 VD57 · 2004 HJ78 · 2007 CB63[2]
main-belt[1] · (inner)
Orbital characteristics [1]
Epoch 25 February 2023 (JD 2460000.5)
Uncertainty parameter 0
Observation arc23.06 yr (8,422 days)
Earliest precovery date15 October 1999
Aphelion2.437 AU
Perihelion1.946 AU
2.191 AU
Eccentricity0.1120
3.24 yr (1,185 d)
25.239°
0° 18m 13.874s / day
Inclination2.094°
21.380°
66.711°
Physical characteristics
Mean diameter
898 m[3]
542–1309 m[3]
0.223±0.073[3]
S[3]
17.38±0.05[3]
17.40[1][2]

    Name

    Dinkinesh is the Ethiopian name for the Lucy fossil, after which the Lucy mission is named.[5] The name means "you are marvelous" in the Amharic language (ድንቅነሽ).[6][7] The name was proposed by the Lucy mission team after the asteroid was identified as a flyby target, and it was later approved and announced by the International Astronomical Union's Working Group for Small Bodies Nomenclature on 6 February 2023.[5][6]

    Orbit diagram of Lucy's flyby of Dinkinesh (1999 VD57) on 1 November 2023

    References
    1. "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 152830 (1999 VD57)" (2022-11-05 last obs.). Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
    2. "(152830) = 2004 HJ78 = 1999 VD57 = 2007 CB63". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
    3. de León, J.; Licandro, J.; Pinilla-Alonso, N.; Moskovitz, N.; Kareta, T.; Popescu, M.; et al. (March 2023). "Characterisation of the new target of the NASA Lucy mission: asteroid 152830 Dinkinesh (1999 VD57)". Astronomy & Astrophysics. arXiv:2303.05918.
    4. Kretke, Katherine (25 January 2023). "NASA's Lucy Team Announces New Asteroid Target". NASA. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
    5. Foust, Jeff (26 January 2023). "NASA adds asteroid flyby to Lucy mission". SpaceNews. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
    6. "WGSBN Bulletin 3, #2" (PDF). WGSBN Bulletin. International Astronomical Union. 3 (2): 22. 6 February 2023. Retrieved 6 February 2023.
    7. Kretke, Katherine (1 March 2023). "Introducing "Dinkinesh" – First Asteroid Target for NASA's Lucy Mission Gets a Name". SciTechDaily. Retrieved 2 March 2023.
    This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.