Moon
A small satellite named Dactyl orbits Ida. Dactyl, officially (243) Ida I Dactyl (/ˈdæktɨl/ DAK-til) was discovered in images taken by the Galileo spacecraft during its flyby in 1993. These images provided the first direct confirmation of an asteroid moon. At the time, it was separated from Ida by a distance of 90 kilometres (56 mi), moving in a prograde orbit. Dactyl is heavily cratered, like Ida, and consists of similar materials. Its origin is uncertain, but evidence from the flyby suggests that it originated as a fragment of the Koronis parent body.
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Famous quotes containing the word moon:
“For now the moon with friendless light carouses
On hill and housetop, street and marketplace,
Men will plunge, mile after mile of men,
To crush this lucent madness of the face....”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“And then we’ll sit
in the shadowy spruce and
pick the bones
of careless mice,
while the long moon drifts
toward Asia”
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the girl might rise
and make the garden silver,
as the white moon breaks,
“Nossis,” he cried, “a flame.””
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