Animated model of the formation of the asteroid Dinkinesh’s moon Selam. Dinkinesh’s tiny moon was likely built from multiple low-speed collisions between small moonlets, making it the first confirmed “contact binary” moon. The current understanding is that Selam formed not from two, but at least four separate bodies. This simulation shows the Moonlet merger forming the characteristic ridge on the inner lobe of Selam (Selam A), which matches the observations obtained from NASA’s Lucy mission.
- Creator: Sabina Raducan
- This version: 16.12.2025
- License: Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Specific citation: This graphic by Sabina Raducan (ISSI Bern) is available via the open-access s-ink.org repository.
- Related reference: Raducan et al., (2025) Multiple moonlet mergers as the origin of the Dinkinesh-Selam system. Nature Communications. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-66484-3.
- Works on light & dark backgrounds
- Colour-vision deficiency friendly
- Readable in black&white
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