Asteroid’s Moon Is Christened ‘Dactyl’

WASHINGTON — A mile-wide moon orbiting the asteroid Ida between Earth and Jupiter has been given the name Dactyl, NASA said Tuesday.

Dactyl was discovered in March when astronomers analyzed data collected by the Galileo space probe as it flew by Ida on its way to Jupiter, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said.

The moon, about one mile across, is the first natural satellite of an asteroid ever discovered and photographed, it said.

The name is derived from the Dactyli, mythological beings who lived on Mt. Ida, where the infant god Zeus was hidden by the nymph Ida, the agency said.