Asteroid moon
natural satellite of a minor planet
An asteroid moon is an asteroid that orbits or goes around another asteroid. Asteroid moons are quite rare. Only 2% of asteroids are thought to have moons.
![](http://178.128.105.246/host-http-upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7e/243_ida.jpg/220px-243_ida.jpg)
To be an asteroid moon, an asteroid has to be smaller than the object it goes around. If they are roughly the same size they are called a binary pair.
Dimorphos is an asteroid moon that is famous as the target of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test.
References
change- Chiang, E.; Lithwick, Y.; Buie, M.; Grundy, W.; Holman, M.; A Brief History of Trans-Neptunian Space, to appear in Protostars and Planets V (August 2006) Final preprint on arXiv