Key facts
- Discovered by
- Ann Harch
- Discovery site
- Galileo spacecraft
- Discovery date
- 17 February 1994
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ d æ k t ɪ l / DAK -til
- Named after
- Dactyls
- Alternative designations
- 1993 (243) 1
- Adjectives
- Dactylian / d æ k ˈ t ɪ l i ə n /
- Semi major axis
- 90 km at time of discovery
- Orbital period sidereal
- prograde, ca. 20 h
- Inclination
- ca. 8°
- Satellite of
- Ida
- Dimensions
- 1.6 km × 1.4 km × 1.2 km
- Equatorial escape velocity
- 0.895 m/s
- Synodic rotation period
- synchronous
- Temperature
- 200 K (−73 °C; −100 °F)
via Wikipedia infobox
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Dactyl (/ˈdæktɪl/ DAK-til), formal designation (243) Ida I, is a small asteroid moon 1,200 by 1,400 by 1,600 m (3,900 by 4,600 by 5,200 ft), in size) that orbits 243 Ida, a main-belt asteroid. It was imaged by the Galileo spacecraft on August 28, 1993; Dactyl was discovered while examining the delayed image downloads from Galileo on February 17, 1994. It was provisionally designated S/1993 (243) 1. The satellite was named after the mythical creatures called dactyls, who, according to Greek mythology, lived on Mount Ida.
Orbit
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Dactyl” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.