NASA’s Lucy spacecraft is about to have its second shut encounter with an asteroid

A NASA spacecraft will make an in depth method to an asteroid in the principle belt on Sunday afternoon, within the second of a number of asteroid flybys deliberate for its 12-year mission to review remnants of the early photo voltaic system. The Lucy spacecraft shall be 596 miles (960 km) from asteroid Donaldjohanson — named after the paleoanthropologist who found the “Lucy” hominin fossil — on the closest level of its cross, which can happen at 1:51PM ET, in keeping with NASA. Lucy will use three devices to seize detailed observations as the article will get nearer, rotating with the asteroid over just a few hours to get the total image. It can cease monitoring simply earlier than the asteroid is nearest, when it’ll must defend its devices because of the place of the solar to forestall damaging them.

The spacecraft beforehand visited a small asteroid referred to as Dinkinesh in 2023, and its observations revealed that the asteroid is orbited by what’s known as a contact binary, or a peanut-shaped double moon “fabricated from two smaller objects touching one another,” NASA defined on the time. After Donaldjohanson, Lucy will transfer on to its important targets, a handful of “Trojan” asteroids orbiting the solar in the identical path as Jupiter. It’s anticipated to achieve the primary of these objects in 2027.

“Each asteroid has a special story to inform, and these tales weave collectively to color the historical past of our photo voltaic system,” Tom Statler, Lucy mission program scientist, mentioned in a press launch. “The truth that every new asteroid we go to knocks our socks off means we’re solely starting to know the depth and richness of that historical past. Telescopic observations are hinting that Donaldjohanson goes to have an attention-grabbing story, and I’m totally anticipating to be shocked — once more.”

This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/house/nasas-lucy-spacecraft-is-about-to-have-its-second-close-encounter-with-an-asteroid-180735995.html?src=rss

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