Latest news with #Dinkinesh
Time of India
21-04-2025
- Science
- Time of India
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 . by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Wife won't let go of dog, husband finds out why and calls police - watch! Happy in Shape Undo 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 . Live Events Also Read : Shannon Sharpe faces $50m lawsuit as NFL legend sued for rape, sexual battery 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. Also Read : Kristen Stewart is married! Twilight star celebrates intimate wedding with longtime partner Dylan Meyer in Los Angeles FAQs 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. 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.
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA's Lucy spacecraft is about to have its second close encounter with an asteroid
A NASA spacecraft will make a close approach to an asteroid in the main belt on Sunday afternoon, in the second of several asteroid flybys planned for its 12-year mission to study remnants of the early solar system. The Lucy spacecraft will be 596 miles (960 km) from asteroid Donaldjohanson — named after the paleoanthropologist who discovered the 'Lucy' hominin fossil — at the closest point of its pass, which will occur at 1:51PM ET. Lucy will use three instruments to capture detailed observations as the object gets closer, rotating with the asteroid over a few hours to get the full picture. It will stop tracking just before the asteroid is nearest, when it'll have to shield its instruments due to the position of the sun to prevent damaging them. The spacecraft previously visited a small asteroid called 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 'made of two smaller objects touching each other,' NASA explained at the time. After Donaldjohanson, Lucy will move on to its main targets, a handful of 'Trojan' asteroids orbiting the sun in the same path as Jupiter. It's expected to reach the first of those objects in 2027. 'Every asteroid has a different story to tell, and these stories weave together to paint the history of our solar system,' Tom Statler, Lucy mission program scientist, said in a press release. 'The fact that each new asteroid we visit knocks our socks off means we're only beginning to understand the depth and richness of that history. Telescopic observations are hinting that Donaldjohanson is going to have an interesting story, and I'm fully expecting to be surprised — again.'
CBS News
18-04-2025
- Science
- CBS News
NASA's Lucy spacecraft to zoom past asteroid this weekend at 30,000 mph: "We don't know what to expect"
NASA's Lucy spacecraft will swoop past a small asteroid this weekend as it makes its way to an even bigger prize: the unexplored swarms of asteroids near Jupiter. It will be the second asteroid encounter for Lucy, launched in 2021 on a quest that will take it to 11 space rocks. In November 2023, Lucy successfully "phoned home" to NASA after a high-speed encounter with an asteroid called Dinkinesh. The close approaches should help scientists better understand our early solar system when planets were forming; asteroids are the ancient leftovers. The upcoming flyby is a dress rehearsal for 2027 when Lucy reaches its first so-called Trojan asteroid near Jupiter. Cranking up its three science instruments, the spacecraft on Sunday will observe the harmless asteroid known as Donaldjohanson. The encounter will take place 139 million miles from Earth in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, so far away that it will take 12 minutes for each bit of data to reach flight controllers in Colorado. The paleontologist for whom the asteroid is named plans to be at spacecraft builder and operator Lockheed Martin's Mission Control for all the action. He discovered the fossil Lucy in Ethiopia 50 years ago; the spacecraft is named after the famous human ancestor. NASA's Lucy will venture as close as 596 miles to this asteroid, an estimated 2 ½ miles in length but much shorter in width. Scientists should have a better idea of its size and shape following the brief visit. The spacecraft will zoom by at more than 30,000 mph. The asteroid is among countless fragments believed to have resulted from a major collision 150 million years ago. "It's not going to be a basic potato. We already know that," said lead scientist Hal Levison of Southwest Research Institute. Rather, Levison said the asteroid may resemble a bowling pin or even a snowman like Arrokoth, the Kuiper Belt object visited by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft in 2019. The other possibility is that there are two elongated but separate asteroids far apart. "We don't know what to expect. That's what makes this so cool," he said. There will be no communications with Lucy during the flyby as the spacecraft turns its antenna away from Earth in order to track the asteroid. Levison expects to have most of the science data within a day. Unlike its first flyby, Lucy will stop tracking Donaldjohanson 40 seconds before its closest approach to protect its instruments from sunlight, NASA said. "If you were sitting on the asteroid watching the Lucy spacecraft approaching, you would have to shield your eyes staring at the sun while waiting for Lucy to emerge from the glare. After Lucy passes the asteroid, the positions will be reversed, so we have to shield the instruments in the same way," Michael Vincent of Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) said in a statement . Lucy's next stop - "the main event," as Levison calls it - will be the Trojan asteroids that share Jupiter's orbit around the sun. Swarms of Trojans precede and follow the solar system's largest planet as it circles the sun. Lucy will visit eight of them from 2027 through 2033, some of them in pairs of two. The spacecraft is named after the 3.2 million-year-old skeletal remains of a human ancestor found in Ethiopia, which got its name from the 1967 Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." That prompted NASA to launch the spacecraft into space with band members' lyrics and other luminaries' words of wisdom imprinted on a plaque. The spacecraft also carried a disc made of lab-grown diamonds for one of its science instruments.
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA spacecraft gets first photos of Asteroid Donaldjohansen on way to exploring even bigger space prize
NASA's Lucy spacecraft has got a new target in its sights. New photos have emerged of a small asteroid named Donaldjohanson. Images show the perceived motion of the asteroid. The Lucy spacecraft will pass within 596 miles of the 2-mile-wide asteroid on April 20. It will be the second asteroid encounter for the Lucy spacecraft. In the first image, another dim asteroid can be seen in the lower right section of the frame. Rare 7-Planet Parade Happens This Week. Here's How You Can See It The spacecraft has valued experience as it successfully observed the tiny main belt asteroid Dinkinesh and its contact binary moon, Selam, in November 2023. NASA says this second asteroid encounter for Lucy "will serve as a dress-rehearsal for the spacecraft's main targets, the never-before-explored Jupiter Trojan asteroids." NASA says the asteroid is named in honor of anthropologist Donald Johanson, who discovered the fossilized skeleton — called "Lucy" — of a human ancestor. The Lucy mission is named for the fossil, NASA added. The Donaldjohanson asteroid currently stands at a distance of 45 million miles away. Although the images are dim, the asteroid is just bright enough to stand out. Lucy will continue to monitor Donaldjohanson over the next two months as part of the optical navigation program, which uses the asteroid's apparent position against the star background to ensure an accurate article source: NASA spacecraft gets first photos of Asteroid Donaldjohansen on way to exploring even bigger space prize
