On This Day In Space: Aug. 28, 1993: Galileo spacecraft flies by asteroid Ida (Image Credit: Space.com)
On Aug. 28, 1993, NASA’s Galileo spacecraft flew by the asteroid Ida on its way to Jupiter.
Related: The greatest asteroid encounters of all time!
Galileo was the first spacecraft to fly by an asteroid in the asteroid belt. Ida was actually the second space rock it visited after another flyby of the asteroid Gaspra in 1991.
Galileo whizzed by Ida going almost 28,000 mph and came within 1,500 miles of the asteroid’s surface. During the encounter, Galileo also discovered a tiny moon orbiting Ida!
This was the first confirmed satellite of an asteroid. The International Astronomical Union named the moon Dactyl, after a group of mythological beings who lived on a sacred mountain called Mount Ida.
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