The NASA Lucy spacecraft is on an exciting mission to explore the outer solar system. Recently, it took its first images of the asteroid Donaldjohanson. This is a big milestone as Lucy gears up for a flyby of this asteroid on April 20, 2025.
The images were snapped on February 20 and 22. In these photos, you can see Donaldjohanson moving against a backdrop of distant stars. This achievement brings Lucy closer to its key targets.
A flyby of Donaldjohanson is a vital part of NASA’s Lucy mission. It will serve as a practice run for upcoming encounters with the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. These asteroids are unique; they’ve never been visited before.
On the day of the flyby, Lucy will be about 596 miles (960 km) away from Donaldjohanson. This close pass will let the spacecraft gather important data to help it navigate better in future missions. The goal is to study these ancient remnants of the solar system, which have orbited Jupiter for billions of years.
The images of Donaldjohanson were taken using the high-resolution L’LORRI camera. They offer a peek at the asteroid against a star-studded sky, taken from 45 million miles (70 million kilometers) away. The photos show that, even from this distance, the asteroid is visible within the constellation Sextans. The movement between the two images emphasizes Lucy’s approach, despite another small asteroid briefly appearing in the frames. As Lucy gets closer, we will learn much more about Donaldjohanson.
The mission is named after a famous fossil, Lucy, discovered by anthropologist Donald Johanson. This link adds a rich sense of history and purpose to the project. Lucy’s advanced imaging tools are designed to gather detailed information about asteroids and the early solar system.
Led by principal investigator Hal Levison at the Southwest Research Institute, the mission is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Studying asteroids like Donaldjohanson is essential because these bodies act as time capsules. They provide insights into the early solar system’s conditions. Understanding them helps scientists learn about how planets formed and how ancient materials influenced our solar system as we know it today.
The Lucy mission, the 13th mission in NASA’s Discovery Program, pushes forward in uncovering the solar system’s mysteries. With its innovative imagery and carefully planned flybys, Lucy is setting the stage for future missions to examine some of the universe’s most remote and ancient objects.
