IDA & DACTYL
- Ida Close Up
- 243 Ida
- Photographed by Galileo on August 28, 1993 at a distance of 1500 miles and a speed of
28,000mph
- Roughly 35 X 15 X 13 miles in size
- Rotational period of ~4.63 hours
- 169,000,000 miles from the Sun
- Orbital period of ~4.84yrs
- Ida is classified as an S-type asteroid
- Ida & Dactyl
- Dactyl is the first natural satellite of an asteroid ever discovered and photographed
- It orbits Ida at a distance of about 56 miles
- Dactyl close up
- Dactyl is about 0.75 by 0.87 by 1.0 mile in size
- Scientists have estimated that it is virtually impossible for Dactyl to have been captured by Ida as a result of it just wondering into Ida's orbit
- Although composed of approximately the same material as Ida it is
believed that Dactyl is not simply a piece of Ida that has broken off
- The most common theory is that Dactyl and Ida were both created at the
same time and were probably the offspring from a collision of larger
objects
- Color Imaging of the pair
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