Preparing for the NASA Lucy spacecraft’s first Trojan asteroid encounters, mission scientists have begun instructing the spacecraft to turn its cameras toward its future targets. From hundreds of millions of miles away, the asteroids appear as pinpricks of light. Yet, these early observations will help the team select the best camera settings for Lucy’s upcoming […]
Lucy’s high-resolution, black-and-white imager, L’LORRI, captured a series of photos between Sept. 15–17, as the comet was zooming toward Mars. Lucy was 240 million miles away from 3I/ATLAS, well beyond the orbit of Mars, on its way to explore eight asteroids out of two swarms of asteroids that share an orbit with Jupiter, collectively known as the Jupiter Trojan asteroids.
Scientists with NASA’s Lucy mission continue to analyze data collected during the spacecraft’s April 20 encounter with the main-belt asteroid Donaldjohanson. The images below were taken by the spacecraft’s L’LORRI imager a few minutes before its closest approach. This successful dress rehearsal gives the team high confidence that both the spacecraft and the team are […]
The Lucy operations team has confirmed NASA’s Lucy spacecraft phoned home after its encounter with the main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson. The spacecraft’s closest approach to the asteroid occurred at 1:51 pm EDT on Sunday. Initial information indicates that the spacecraft is in good health. The team has commanded the spacecraft to start sending the data […]
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft will soon reach the small main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson. In this image, created by stacking images that the Lucy spacecraft took during its approach, the asteroid appears as a series of points in front of the static background of stars and galaxies. In addition to the asteroid brightening as the spacecraft approaches […]
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft is less than one month away from its next asteroid encounter. As it approaches, Lucy is keeping an eye on its target, the small main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson, using its high-resolution imager, L’LORRI, for optical navigation. At its closest point, Lucy will fly 600 miles (960 km) from Donaldjohanson, a distance carefully […]
UPDATE AS OF DEC. 13, 2024 Shortly after 11:30 p.m. EST, Thursday Dec. 12, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft resumed communications with Earth following the short, planned communication blackout that occurred in the hours around closest approach during its second Earth gravity assist. NASA’s CARA (Conjunction Assessment Risk Analysis) operators determined that no spacecraft maneuvers were necessary …
UPDATE AS OF FEB. 5, 2024: On Feb. 3, NASA's Lucy spacecraft completed the largest planned main engine burn of its 12-year mission. During this deep space maneuver, the main engines operated for over 36 minutes. UPDATE AS OF FEB. 1, 2024: On Jan. 31, NASA's Lucy spacecraft completed the first main engine burn of …
The satellite discovered during the first asteroid encounter of NASA's Lucy mission has an official name. On Nov. 27, 2023, the International Astronomical Union approved the name "Selam" or ሰላም, which means "peace" in the Ethiopian language Amharic, for Dinkinesh's moon. "Dinkinesh is the Ethiopian name for the fossil nicknamed ‘Lucy,'", says Raphael Marshall of …
