[1] The satellite was named after the mythical creatures called dactyls, who, according to Greek mythology, lived on Mount Ida.

[5] Based on computer simulations, Dactyl's pericenter must be more than about 65 km (40 mi) from Ida for it to remain in a stable orbit.

[6] The range of orbits generated by the simulations was narrowed down by the necessity of having the orbits pass through points at which Galileo observed Dactyl to be at 16:52:05 UT on 28 August 1993, about 90 km (56 mi) from Ida at longitude 85°.

[7][8] On 26 April 1994, the Hubble Space Telescope observed Ida for eight hours and was unable to spot Dactyl.

Its discovery settled the long debate over the existence of asteroid moons.