On 1 November 2023, NASA's Lucy spacecraft passed not its inaugural asteroid and discovered it was actually two - because Dinkinesh is, in fact, a binary pair. Hal Levison, the principal investigator for Lucy at the Boulder, Colorado office of the Southwest Research Institute, which is headquartered in San Antonio, expressed his delight, saying, "Dinkinesh truly lives up to its name, which means 'marvelous' in the Amharic language." He went on to remark, "When Lucy was originally chosen for the mission, we had planned to conduct flybys of seven asteroids. With the addition of Dinkinesh, two Trojan moons, and now this binary system, we've certainly exceeded expectations." In the weeks leading up to Lucy's encounter with Dinkinesh, the Lucy team had entertained the possibility that Dinkinesh might be a binary system. This conjecture stemmed from the observations made by Lucy's instruments, indicating variations in the asteroid's brightness over time. The initial images from the encounter have unequivocally confirmed that Dinkinesh is indeed a close binary system. A preliminary analysis of the available images suggests that the larger component spans approximately 0.5 miles (790 meters) at its widest, while the smaller counterpart measures around 0.15 miles (220 meters) in size. While this encounter primarily served as an in-flight test for the spacecraft, focusing specifically on assessing the system that enables Lucy to autonomously track an asteroid hurtling past at a speed of 10,000 mph, referred to as the terminal tracking system, the results have been immensely satisfying. Where: United States When: 03 Nov 2023 Credit: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL/NOAO/Cover Images **EDITORIAL USE ONLY. MATERIALS ONLY TO BE USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH EDITORIAL STORY. THE USE OF THESE MATERIALS FOR ADVERTISING, MARKETING OR ANY OTHER COMMERCIAL PURPOSE IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED. MATERIAL COPYRIGHT REMAINS WITH STATED SUPPLIER.**