Asteroid Nysa May Be First 75-Km Contact Trinary as New 1-Km Moon Sharpens Case
Updated
Updated · Universe Today · Aug 1
Asteroid Nysa May Be First 75-Km Contact Trinary as New 1-Km Moon Sharpens Case
3 articles · Updated · Universe Today · Aug 1
Summary
New adaptive-optics images from telescopes in Arizona and Chile show two neck-like valleys on 44 Nysa, suggesting three lobes fused into a single 75-kilometer body.
A faint moon about 1 kilometer wide, designated S/2026 (44) 1, was independently detected in two observing runs at least 170 kilometers from Nysa.
That satellite could settle the shape debate: tracking its orbit would yield Nysa’s mass and density, testing whether the asteroid is a loose three-body merger or a heavily cratered single rock.
Nysa is one of the brightest large E-type asteroids, and researchers say understanding its structure could clarify whether such bodies are primitive inner-solar-system leftovers or fragments of a larger world.