Orbit thumb|Diagram of potential orbits of Dactyl around Ida|left Dactyl's orbit around Ida is not precisely known. Galileo was in the plane of Dactyl's orbit when most of the images were taken, which made determining its exact orbit difficult. Dactyl orbits in the prograde direction and is inclined about 8° to Ida's equator. Based on computer simulations, Dactyl's pericenter must be more than about from Ida for it to remain in a stable orbit. 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 from Ida at longitude 85°. On 26 April 1994, the Hubble Space Telescope observed Ida for eight hours and was unable to spot Dactyl. It would have been able to observe it if it were more than about from Ida.
Orbit thumb|Diagram of potential orbits of Dactyl around Ida|left Dactyl's orbit around Ida is not precisely known. Galileo was in the plane of Dactyl's orbit when most of the images were taken, which made determining its exact orbit difficult Dactyl orbits in the prograde direction and is inclined about 8° to Ida's equator. Based on computer simulations, Dactyl's pericenter must be more than about from Ida for it to remain in a stable orbit. The range of orbits generated by the simulations was n.arrowed 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 from Ida at longitude 85°. On 26 April 1994, the Hubble Space Telescope observed Ida for eight hours and was unable to spot Dactyl It. would have been able to observe it if it were more than about from Ida.