The exciting thing for me is the discovery of a small moon orbiting the asteroid. Radar data showed a small body moving around the larger asteroid, which in the video below and image shows up as a bright spot. (Based on the fact that 1998 QE2 is named for a ship named for Queen Elizabeth, I’m tempted to make a Prince Charles/dinghy joke, but I’ll spare you.) This isn’t the first asteroid moon ever seen, but it’s still very cool — not least since it will eventually let astronomers estimate the mass of 1998 QE2. That mass will in turn give some information about the density and composition of the asteroid. The higher-resolution radar maps to come should also reveal more about the moon itself. Stay tuned!
2 responses to “Asteroid moon: moonsteroid!”
I wonder if the IAU would allow the discoverers of the moon to ever actually name it something like ‘Moonsteroid’. Because that would be pretty awesome…
More than 10% of asteroids have moons, so “moonsteroid” wouldn’t be the first choice of names for any particular example of one.