You might think of asteroids as just rocks of various sizes floating around in space. But they’re vastly more complex than that: they show an incredible diversity in size, shape, composition and even the way they change over time.
If you did previously dismiss them, don’t feel bad. It wasn’t until the past few decades that astronomers started to realize just how interesting they are. For a long time, asteroids were treated with contempt; they were even called “vermin of the sky” for their tendency to photobomb astronomers’ observations of “important” objects, such as stars and galaxies.
As astronomical equipment and techniques improved over the years, asteroids came into their own. And now, with spacecraft, we can study more of them up close and better appreciate their complexity, especially when it comes to small ones orbited by tiny asteroid moons.
Yes, just like larger planets, asteroids can have moons, too!
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