Surprises Awaited NASA's Lucy Mission on its Asteroid Encounter
NASA's Lucy mission unexpectedly discovered two space rocks during its flyby of the asteroid Dinkinesh, offering exciting prospects for uncovering new insights and enhancing preparations for future encounters
Subscribe to CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter and delve into the mysteries of the universe with updates on captivating discoveries, groundbreaking scientific advancements, and much more. The cameras of NASA's Lucy mission revealed an unexpected surprise as it passed by its initial asteroid this week.
The Lucy spacecraft flew past Dinkinesh, a small asteroid situated in the main asteroid belt of our solar system, found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. However, the astronomers' assumption of it being a single asteroid was proven wrong, as it turned out to be a binary pair of space rocks. Hal Levison, the principal investigator of the Lucy mission at the Southwest Research Institute, expressed that Dinkinesh, meaning "marvelous" in Amharic, the language of Ethiopia, truly lived up to its name.
Levison expressed his admiration, stating, "This is incredible news! Initially, we intended to pass by seven asteroids during Lucy's journey. However, with the inclusion of Dinkinesh, two Trojan moons, and now this satellite, we have exceeded our expectations and raised the number to eleven." Astronomers were initially alerted to the possibility of Dinkinesh being a pair when fluctuations in brightness were observed by the instruments on board Lucy leading up to the spacecraft's close encounter on Wednesday.
What the Dinkinesh duo could reveal
The Lucy team believes the larger asteroid is a half-mile (805 meters) wide and the smaller space rock is 0.15 miles (220 meters) across.
During its closest approach on Wednesday afternoon, Lucy approached the surface of the asteroid within a distance of 265 miles (425 kilometers). This close approach served the purpose of facilitating a comprehensive test of the Lucy spacecraft's equipment, including its terminal tracking system. This system enables the spacecraft to autonomously locate the asteroid and maintain a visual tracking of it as it flies by at a speed of 10,000 miles per hour (4.5 kilometers per second).
Tom Kennedy, a guidance and navigation engineer at Lockheed Martin, stated that the terminal tracking system successfully operated as planned, despite encountering a more challenging target than anticipated. Lockheed Martin, a NASA partner on the Lucy mission, released this series of remarkable images.
Outside of the OSIRIS-REx sample collector, a glimpse reveals sample material from asteroid Bennu on the middle right. Preliminary analysis of this material has unveiled compelling evidence of both carbon and water. The main portion of the sample resides within the collector.
NASA announces historic reveal of unprecedented asteroid sample containing crucial elements, showcasing the significance of witnessing real-life events rather than mere simulations or tests.
The data collected from the flyby will provide valuable information on small asteroids, allowing for a comparison to those observed in previous NASA missions.
According to Keith Noll, Lucy project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, "We were aware that this would be the smallest main belt asteroid ever observed up close. The fact that there are two makes it even more captivating. While these asteroids may appear similar to the near-Earth asteroid binary Didymos and Dimorphos that DART observed, there are intriguing differences that we will explore."
and potential asteroid impacts, the DART mission targeted Dimorphos, a diminutive moon in orbit around the near-Earth asteroid Didymos. This deliberate collision, which occurred in September 2022, aimed to showcase the pivotal technology required for altering the trajectory of celestial objects in space.
Over the next week, the data collected during the Lucy mission flyby will be continuously transmitted back to Earth. This valuable information will aid the mission team in preparing for future asteroid flybys, including a significant encounter with the main belt asteroid named Donaldjohanson in 2025.
The primary objective of Lucy is to thoroughly investigate the Trojan asteroid swarms surrounding Jupiter, an unexplored realm till now. These groups of asteroids, named after figures in Greek mythology, follow two distinct paths around the Sun. One swarm precedes Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, while the other trails behind it.
On October 13, 2023, NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida witnessed the launch of the Psyche spacecraft aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. This remarkable mission aims to explore Psyche, an object located 2.2 billion miles (3.5 billion kilometers) away, with the potential to provide valuable insights into the composition of planets such as our own Earth. Captured in this breathtaking photograph by CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP, the significance of this momentous event is beautifully portrayed. (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)
Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images
Psyche mission launches as NASAs first trip to a metal world
Scientists have mostly relied on artist renderings or animations to study the Trojans due to their faraway location, making it difficult to observe them in detail using telescopes. However, Lucy's upcoming mission will change that by providing us with the first ever high-resolution images depicting the appearance of these asteroids.
By the year 2027, Lucy is expected to have reached the Trojan asteroids, which vary in both size and color.
The Lucy mission takes its name from the Lucy fossil, which refers to the remains of an ancient human ancestor found in Ethiopia back in 1974. This particular skeleton has been instrumental in helping scientists gain a deeper understanding of human evolution. Similarly, the NASA Lucy team aims to accomplish a similar feat by shedding light on the history of our solar system.
Within our solar system, there are approximately 7,000 Trojan asteroids. The largest of these measures 160 miles (257 kilometers) in diameter. These asteroids can be seen as a type of fossil themselves, representing the remnants left behind after the formation of the massive planets in our solar system, such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
The mission will help researchers peer back in time to learn how the solar system formed 4.5 billion years ago and unlock how planets ended up in their current spots.
