Pros:
1. Lucy spacecraft’s flyby of asteroid Dinkinesh revealed a surprise discovery of a close binary system.
2. The discovery of a close binary system provides valuable insights into the formation and evolution of asteroids.
3. Studying binary systems helps scientists better understand celestial dynamics and gravitational interactions.
4. This discovery adds to NASA’s growing knowledge of asteroids and their diverse characteristics.
Cons:
1. The preliminary statistics of Dinkinesh’s size, around 0.5 miles, may limit our understanding of its structural and compositional complexity.
2. Since this is a flyby, the data collected may be limited, and a detailed analysis might require further observations.
3. The surprise discovery of a close binary system might have diverted attention from other scientific objectives or research goals of the mission.
4. Depending on the nature of the binary system, it could limit the possibilities of future exploration or sample collection from the asteroid.
context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlnMvcceQpA
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft recently soared past the asteroid Dinkinesh and made an unexpected finding – it is a close binary! Initial data indicates that Dinkinesh measures approximately 0.5 miles in diameter.
