NASA’s Lucy spacecraft flew past its first two asteroids as the spacecraft found that the main belt asteroid Dinkinesh is actually two asteroids bound together as a binary pair.
- On its six-billion-kilometre journey, NASA’s Lucy mission’s main aim is to observe the Jupiter Trojan asteroids.
Jupiter Trojan asteroids
- The Trojan asteroids, which borrow their name from Greek mythology, orbit the sun in two swarms — one that’s ahead of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, and a second one that lags behind it.
- Lucy is scheduled to reach the Trojan asteroids in 2027. Each of the asteroids Lucy is set to fly by differ in size and color.
Asteroid Dinkinesh
- Asteroid Dinkinesh is located in our solar system’s main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Lucy mission
- NASA launched the Lucy mission on October 16, 2021. The mission borrows its name from the Lucy fossil, the remains of an ancient human ancestor discovered in Ethiopia in 1974.
- The skeleton has helped researchers piece together aspects of human evolution, and NASA Lucy team members hope their mission will achieve a similar feat regarding the history of our solar system.
