Discovering Eurybates' Satellite

  • Released Monday, April 19, 2021
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Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Music: "Dreamy Fish Waltz" by Eric Chevalier of Universal Production Music

On January 9, 2020, the Lucy Mission officially announced that it would be visiting not seven, but eight asteroids. As it turns out, Eurybates, one of the asteroids along Lucy’s path, has a small satellite. Shortly after the Lucy team discovered the satellite, both it and Eurybates moved behind the Sun, preventing the team from observing it further. However, the asteroids emerged from behind the Sun in July 2020, and since then, the Lucy team has been able to observe the satellite with Hubble on multiple occasions, allowing the team to precisely define the satellite’s orbit and allowing the little satellite to finally get an official name – Queta.

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NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

This page was originally published on Monday, April 19, 2021.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:44 PM EDT.

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