NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Set for High-Stakes Asteroid Encounter on Sunday

The Lucy ngo is connected a 12-year travel to research a peculiar acceptable of asteroids that pb and travel Jupiter arsenic it orbits the Sun. As it journeys to these Trojan asteroids, the probe is preparing for its 2nd halt astatine the main belt, approaching a mysterious abstraction stone to signifier for the main event.

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft volition transportation retired a flyby of the tiny main loop asteroid Donaldjohanson connected April 20 astatine 1:51 p.m. ET, erstwhile it volition travel wrong an eerily adjacent region of 596 miles (960 kilometers) from the target. This is Lucy’s 2nd brushwood with an asteroid, but it is acold much analyzable than its archetypal flyby, with NASA describing it arsenic a “comprehensive formal rehearsal for Lucy’s main mission,” the abstraction bureau wrote successful a news release.

Lucy archetypal laid its robotic eyes connected Donaldjohanson successful February and has been tracking the asteroid implicit the past 2 months to hole for its flyby. Donaldjohanson, named aft the discoverer of the Lucy hominid fossil, is simply a carbonaceous asteroid that’s astir 2.5 miles (4 km) wide. The asteroid is simply a fragment from a collision that took spot astir 150 cardinal years ago, making it 1 of the youngest main loop asteroids ever visited by a spacecraft.

Although it’s not a Trojan asteroid, it is located successful a convenient spot for Lucy to plaything by it connected its mode to the Jovian system. The upcoming flyby volition supply the squad with an accidental to trial Lucy’s systems and transportation retired observations utilizing each 3 of the spacecraft’s subject instruments.

The spacecraft volition orient itself to way the asteroid astir 30 minutes earlier its adjacent approach. During that time, Lucy’s high-gain antenna, which it uses to pass with crushed control, volition beryllium turned distant from Earth, suspending communication. For the remainder of the flyby, Lucy volition beryllium connected its own, autonomously rotating utilizing its terminal tracking strategy to support Donaldjohanson successful view. Lucy volition past usage its subject instruments to behaviour reflection sequences of the asteroid that are precise akin to the 1 it volition execute erstwhile it reaches the Trojans.

Around 40 seconds earlier its closest attack to the asteroid, however, Lucy volition halt tracking Donaldjohanson to support its delicate instruments from aggravated sunlight. “If you were sitting connected the asteroid watching the Lucy spacecraft approaching, you would person to shield your eyes staring astatine the Sun portion waiting for Lucy to look from the glare. After Lucy passes the asteroid, the positions volition beryllium reversed, truthful we person to shield the instruments successful the aforesaid way,” Michael Vincent of Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) successful Boulder, Colorado, and brushwood signifier pb of the mission, said successful a statement. “These instruments are designed to photograph objects illuminated by sunlight 25 times dimmer than astatine Earth, truthful looking toward the Sun could harm our cameras.”

After its closest approach, the spacecraft volition reorient its star arrays backmost toward the Sun. It volition reestablish connection with Earth astir an hr aft its flyby, hopefully beaming backmost each the precious information it collected. The team, however, does person to beryllium diligent considering however acold Lucy is from Earth, truthful the process volition instrumentality respective days.

“One of the weird things to wrapper your encephalon astir with these heavy abstraction missions is however dilatory the velocity of airy is,” Vincent said. “Lucy is 12.5 airy minutes distant from Earth, meaning it takes that agelong for immoderate awesome we nonstop to scope the spacecraft. Then it takes different 12.5 minutes earlier we get Lucy’s effect telling america we were heard. So, erstwhile we bid the information playback aft closest approach, it takes 25 minutes from erstwhile we inquire to spot the pictures earlier we get immoderate of them to the ground.”

Lucy launched successful October 2021, and pulled disconnected a flyby of the tiny main loop asteroid Dinkinesh successful November 2023. The mission’s archetypal asteroid brushwood was acold much rewarding than initially anticipated arsenic the brief rendezvous revealed a binary pair with the find of a tiny outer intimately orbiting Dinkinesh.

The mission’s superior absorption is studying the Trojan asteroids, a radical of rocky bodies that pb and travel Jupiter arsenic it orbits the Sun. Lucy volition statesman its circuit of the Trojan asteroids successful 2027 by visiting Eurybates and its binary spouse Queta, followed by Polymele and its binary partner, Leucus, Orus, and the binary brace Patroclus and Menoetius.

“Every asteroid has a antithetic communicative to tell, and these stories weave unneurotic to overgarment the past of our star system,” Tom Statler, Lucy ngo programme idiosyncratic astatine NASA, said successful a statement. “The information that each caller asteroid we sojourn knocks our socks disconnected means we’re lone opening to recognize the extent and richness of that history. Telescopic observations are hinting that Donaldjohanson is going to person an absorbing story, and I’m afloat expecting to beryllium surprised—again.”