On November 1, 2023, the Lucy probe passed near the small asteroid Dinkinesh. The first images reveal an unexpected companion: a moon, named Selam. What seemed to be an encounter with a single object has already become more interesting.
But the following photographs offer another surprise. Selam is not a single block: two bodies touch each other and form a two-lobed satellite. In the first shots, one hid the other. The change of perspective of the probe has made their true form visible.
NASA presents this discovery as the first binary contact satellite observed around an asteroid. The nuance matters: Lucy did not film Selam’s birth nor did she see two moons crashing into each other. She photographed their current configuration.
Several angles had to be compared. A small moon had hidden its second lobe on the first images, giving an initially incomplete answer.
What we know
The two lobes touch each other; they are not two independent moons.
To go to the source
References accessed October 11, 2026. Linked pages may be in another language.
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