Space Probe Gaia Identifies Over 350 Moon-Like Bodies Orbiting Asteroids Across Our Solar System
Gaia Mission Uncovers Potential Moons Around Asteroids
The European Space Agency's Gaia mission has made a significant discovery, finding potential moons around over 350 asteroids. This revelation, if confirmed, will nearly double the known number of asteroids with moons.
The mission, which was launched on December 19, 2013, has been instrumental in providing insights into the early Solar System. Gaia's data release 3 revealed the positions and motions of over 150,000 asteroids, and it has been used to look for asteroids 'wobbling' as a result of the gravitational tug of a moon in orbit around them.
One of the methods Gaia used to detect these potential moons was stellar occultation, the same method used to detect binary stars or exoplanets. Gaia observed the shadow cast by Didymos' moon, Dimorphos, as it passed in front of distant stars.
The Europeans Space Agency's Hera mission, due to launch in October 2024, will follow up on the DART mission to produce a post-impact survey of Dimorphos. The DART mission, which collided with Dimorphos in 2022, aimed to change the asteroid's trajectory to protect Earth from potential future impacts.
The material in the circumstellar disc, from which the asteroids formed, coalesced over time to form the planets and moons we see today across our Solar System. Studying asteroids can help astronomers learn more about what our early Solar System was like and how it evolved over time.
Gaia's findings show that there are many asteroid moons out there waiting to be found. However, as of mid-2025, there are approximately 563 known asteroids and trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) confirmed to have companions. No explicit number of additional binary asteroid candidates from Gaia mission data is stated in the available recent sources.
The paper "'Binary asteroid candidates in Gaia DR3 astrometry' by Liberato et al." was accepted for publication on August 8, 2024, in Astronomy & Astrophysics. For the very latest candidate figures from Gaia, you might need to consult specific Gaia mission data releases or publications after mid-2025 that focus on asteroids.
Binary asteroids can give astronomers insight into how different bodies form, collide, and interact in space. Double impact craters can reveal insights into binary asteroids. Understanding these celestial bodies can help us better understand the processes that have shaped our Solar System and may even provide clues to the existence of extrasolar systems.
[1] The number of confirmed binaries (binary asteroids/TNOs) is based on the most recent comprehensive count as of July 2025.
- The Gaia mission's discovery of potential moons around over 350 asteroids, if confirmed, could expand our understanding of the cosmos and the early Solar System.
- The European Space Agency's Gaia mission, through the use of stellar occultation, has been able to detect potential moons around asteroids, much like it was used to discover exoplanets.
- The study of asteroid moons can provide valuable insights into the environmental-science and space-and-astronomy aspects of our Solar System, helping us understand more about its evolution and the formation of planets and moons.
- As technology continues to advance, upcoming missions like the Hera mission could further our knowledge about the binary asteroid Dimorphos, enhancing our comprehension of space, astronomy, and the science behind them. [1]
