Close-up on Asteroid Dinkinesh and Its Double-lobed Moon.

A recent study published in Nature Astronomy has provided evidence of ongoing volcanic activity on Venus. Researchers analyzed radar images taken by NASA's Magellan spacecraft in the 1990s and found two sets of sinuous and fan-shaped features that indicate recent lava flows. The flows extend from several kilometers to tens of kilometers and suggest that Venus may be as volcanically active as Earth. This discovery provides concrete evidence for ongoing volcanism on Venus, confirming previous expectations. In another study, NASA's Lucy mission unexpectedly discovered a double-lobed moon named Selam orbiting asteroid 152830 Dinkinesh. This is the first contact binary observed orbiting another object, and its formation is believed to be the result of material loss due to the YORP effect. The moon's lobes are roughly equal in size and indicate that the bodies are tidally locked. These findings challenge previous models and provide new insights into the formation and history of asteroids. [Extracted from the article]