An Asteroid and Its Moon | Space Wallpaper

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An Asteroid and Its Moon
In the mid-1990s, the Galileo spacecraft, on its way to the Jupiter system, captured this mind-blowing image of asteroid 243 Ida and its moon, Dactyl. (Image credit: NASA/JPL)

The Galileo spacecraft launched in October of 1989 with a mission to explore the Jupiter system. In August of 1993, using its CCD camera, the craft imaged asteroid 243 Ida from just over 10,000 kilometers (6,000 miles). With this image, scientists discovered the first moon orbiting an asteroid. [Learn more about asteroids]

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Space.com Staff
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Space.com is the premier source of space exploration, innovation and astronomy news, chronicling (and celebrating) humanity's ongoing expansion across the final frontier. Originally founded in 1999, Space.com is, and always has been, the passion of writers and editors who are space fans and also trained journalists. Our current news team consists of Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik; Editor Hanneke Weitering, Senior Space Writer Mike Wall; Senior Writer Meghan Bartels; Senior Writer Chelsea Gohd, Senior Writer Tereza Pultarova and Staff Writer Alexander Cox, focusing on e-commerce. Senior Producer Steve Spaleta oversees our space videos, with Diana Whitcroft as our Social Media Editor.