Close shave for NASA's Lucy as spacecraft successfully fly past asteroid Donaldjohanson

The Lucy spacecraft of NASA successfully flew by asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson. The main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter housed a tiny asteroid. At 1.51 pm EDT on Sunday, April 20, the nearest approach took place. At about 48,000 km/hour, Lucy flew nearly 960 km past the asteroid.

Roughly four kilometres in diameter, the asteroid appears to be carbon-rich. It was likely chipped off a larger parent body around 150 million years ago. It rotates every 251 hours and periodically brightens and dims every 10 days. This suggests that the asteroid has an elongated shape.

According to the Forbes report, the flyby is part of Lucy’s 12-year mission to explore 11 different asteroids, including eight Jupiter Trojans. These primitive celestial bodies are considered to be remnants from the early solar system.

Luci shuns to secure its instruments

Reportedly, during the brief but critical encounter, Lucy stopped tracking the asteroid 40 seconds before its closest approach to protect its sensitive instruments from intense sunlight. Despite this, the spacecraft successfully re-established contact with Earth shortly after. NASA, according to the Forbes report, confirmed that Lucy is in good health.

The spacecraft is now transmitting the collected data back to Earth. This process is expected to take around a week. The flyby, as per the report, was a crucial test run ahead of more complex encounters with Jupiter Trojan asteroids.

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Warm-up targets prove fascinating

As per the media reports, this is Lucy’s second asteroid encounter since it was launched on October 16, 2021. In November 2023, it imaged its first asteroid target, Dinkinesh and discovered a surprise—a small satellite asteroid orbiting it, later named Selam.

According to the reports, Dr Tim Hal Levison, principal investigator for Lucy, described Donaldjohanson as a ‘peculiar’ young object. It is providing ‘unexpected’ knowledge through these early encounters even before Lucy reaches its primary targets, he was further quoted as saying.

What’s next for Lucy?

During its six orbits around the Sun, Lucy will perform multiple gravity-assist flybys of Earth. Reportedly, the next major encounter will involve the asteroid Eurybates and its moon Queta on August 12, 2027, followed by further Trojan flybys until 2033, the reports stated.

Although Lucy will pass by the Earth in orbit a number of times, it will never return to Earth. It will be in the Trojans and Earth's orbit for millions of years, it added.

As per the reports, Lucy bears a time capsule that includes notes of scientific and cultural icons, such as Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr., Carl Sagan, and the Beatles.

Lucy spacecraft: Background

Lucy is named after the finding of a fossilised hominid skeleton found in Ethiopia in 1974. The asteroid Donaldjohanson was named in honour of Dr Donald Johanson, the paleoanthropologist who found the Lucy fossil. NASA is hoping the probe will give insight into the development of the solar system, just as the first Lucy provided important information on human origins.

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FAQs

1. What is the significance of the asteroid Donaldjohanson?
   Donaldjohanson is a carbonaceous asteroid that probably fragmented from a larger body 150 million years ago. It is a test target before Lucy's main mission to investigate Trojan asteroids.
   
2. When will Lucy travel to the Jupiter Trojan asteroids?
   Lucy's maiden encounter with the Jupiter Trojan asteroids is in August 2027, starting with Eurybates and its moon Queta.