moonlet

[ moon-lit ]

/ ˈmun lɪt /

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noun

a small natural or artificial satellite, as one of a number of natural satellites thought to be embedded in the ring system of Saturn.

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Origin of moonlet

First recorded in 1825–35; moon + -let

The golf cart-size spacecraft will travel over 6 million miles and collide with an asteroid moonlet—a small asteroid that orbits another asteroid—named Dimorphos in fall 2022.
NASA is winding up to punch an asteroid|Hannah Seo|November 22, 2021|Popular-Science
It has a secondary body, or moonlet, named Dimorphos that’s 525 feet wide.
NASA’s Mission to Crash a Spacecraft Into an Asteroid Launches Next Month|Vanessa Bates Ramirez|October 6, 2021|Singularity Hub
Using an onboard camera and autonomous navigation software, the spacecraft will crash itself into the moonlet at a speed of almost 15,000 miles per hour.
NASA’s Mission to Crash a Spacecraft Into an Asteroid Launches Next Month|Vanessa Bates Ramirez|October 6, 2021|Singularity Hub
Dimorphos is a moonlet asteroid that orbits a larger asteroid known as Didymos.
An asteroid’s moon got a name so NASA can bump it off its course|Maria Temming|June 30, 2020|Science News

He was circling the black moonlet, at perhaps a thousand yards from its pitted surface.
Shipwreck in the Sky|Eando Binder
He had just glimpsed the jagged moonlet rushing obliquely toward them from the left, bulking suddenly big and monstrous.
The World with a Thousand Moons|Edmond Hamilton
The Arrow, the Hound and the Lady circled the moonlet, swinging inward to the attack.
The Peacemaker|Alfred Coppel