Latest news with #HalLevison
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA's Lucy probe captures 1st close-up images of asteroid Donaldjohanson, revealing 'strikingly complicated geology'
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. NASA's Lucy spacecraft, currently headed toward Jupiter on an asteroid-hopping mission, has captured an impressive close-up of its second target: the space rock 52246 Donaldjohanson. Lucy launched in 2021, embarking on a 12-year journey toward Jupiter's orbit to study an unexplored swarm of asteroids called Jupiter's Trojans. These asteroids are remnants of our early solar system that share the giant planet's orbit around the sun. Along the way, the spacecraft is also squeezing in time for a few dress rehearsals for its Trojan targets down the road — and on Sunday (April 20), it swooped within 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) of the asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson, named after American paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson who co-discovered the Lucy hominid fossil in northern Ethiopia in 1974. Images of the asteroid Lucy took as it approached the three-mile-wide (five-kilometer-wide) asteroid showed wide swings in brightness, suggesting it was either a slowly-rotating rock, appearing brighter when its longer sides faced the spacecraft, or an elongated object. Indeed, close-up images of the asteroid sent home by Lucy on Sunday confirmed both: The asteroid was once two smaller pieces that have conjoined into a larger whole, with a distinct narrow neck between the two lobes. "Asteroid Donaldjohanson has strikingly complicated geology," Hal Levison, the principal investigator for Lucy at Southwest Research Institute in Colorado, said in a statement. "As we study the complex structures in detail, they will reveal important information about the building blocks and collisional processes that formed the planets in our solar system." The new images show the asteroid appearing to rotate. However, this apparent motion isn't due to the asteroid itself spinning — which it does at a very slow rate of three years and eight months — but rather the result of the Lucy spacecraft whizzing by during its flyby at a relative velocity of 8.3 miles per second (13.4 kilometers per second), NASA said. Preliminary analyses of these images suggest the asteroid, which is likely a fragment of a collision about 150 million years ago, is larger than scientists initially estimated — measuring about 5 miles (8 km) long and 2 miles (3.5 km) wide at its widest point. Related Stories: — NASA's asteroid-hopping Lucy probe takes 1st images of its next target: Donaldjohanson — NASA asteroid surveyor snaps stunning views of Earth and moon on way to Jupiter's Trojans — Asteroid 'Dinky,' visited by NASA's Lucy spacecraft, birthed its own moon The images do not technically reveal the entire asteroid, to be clear, as it is larger than the Lucy imager's field of view. The mission team anticipates it will take up to a week to download the remaining encounter data from the spacecraft, which will provide a more complete picture of the asteroid's overall shape. "These early images of Donaldjohanson are again showing the tremendous capabilities of the Lucy spacecraft as an engine of discovery," Tom Statler, the program scientist for the Lucy mission at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in the statement. "The potential to really open a new window into the history of our solar system when Lucy gets to the Trojan asteroids is immense." Following this encounter, Lucy will spend the rest of this year cruising through the asteroid belt toward the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. Its first Trojan flyby, of asteroid Eurybates and its satellite Queta, is scheduled for August 2027.
CBS News
22-04-2025
- Science
- CBS News
NASA's Lucy spacecraft captures images of peanut-shaped asteroid during 30,000 mph flyby
NASA's Lucy spacecraft has beamed back pictures from its latest asteroid flyby, revealing a long, lumpy space rock that resembles an odd-shaped peanut. The space agency released the images Monday, a day after the close approach at a speed of more than 30,000 mph . It was considered a dress rehearsal for the more critical asteroid encounters ahead closer to Jupiter. This asteroid is bigger than scientists anticipated, about 5 miles long and 2 miles wide at its widest point — resembling a deformed peanut. It's so long that the spacecraft couldn't capture it in its entirety in the initial downloaded images. NASA also released a timelapse of images captured about every 2 seconds, showing the asteroid rotating very slowly, apparently due to the spacecraft's motion as it flies by. Data returned over the next week should help clarify the asteroid's shape, according to NASA. Lucy passed within 600 miles of the harmless asteroid known as Donaldjohanson on Sunday in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It's named for the paleontologist who discovered the fossil Lucy 50 years ago in Ethiopia. "Asteroid Donaldjohanson has strikingly complicated geology," Hal Levison, principal investigator for Lucy at Southwest Research Institute, said in a statement . "As we study the complex structures in detail, they will reveal important information about the building blocks and collisional processes that formed the planets in our solar system." The spacecraft was launched in 2021 to study the unexplored so-called Trojan asteroids out near Jupiter. Eight Trojan flybys are planned through 2033. "These early images of Donaldjohanson are again showing the tremendous capabilities of the Lucy spacecraft as an engine of discovery," Tom Statler, program scientist for the Lucy mission at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a statement. "The potential to really open a new window into the history of our solar system when Lucy gets to the Trojan asteroids is immense." 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.
India Today
22-04-2025
- Science
- India Today
Lucy sends first pictures of 150 million-year-old asteroid Donaldjohanson
On its way to the Trojan asteroids, Nasa's Lucy spacecraft has captured an odd-looking asteroid that resembles an ice cream images that arrived on Earth were taken during a close flyby of the asteroid as Lucy flew approximately 960 km from the asteroid Donaldjohanson on April 20, 2025. The asteroid formed about 150 million years said that the asteroid was previously observed to have large brightness variations over a 10-day period, so some of Lucy team members' expectations were confirmed when the first images showed what appeared to be an elongated contact binary, an object formed when two smaller bodies #LucyMission took a look at asteroid Donaldjohanson, its second asteroid encounter on its journey to Jupiter's Trojan asteroids. The first images reveal a unique fragment of an asteroid that formed about 150 million years ago! Find out more: NASA (@NASA) April 21, 2025advertisement 'Asteroid Donaldjohanson has strikingly complicated geology. As we study the complex structures in detail, they will reveal important information about the building blocks and collisional processes that formed the planets in our Solar System,' Hal Levison, principal investigator for Lucy team was surprised by the odd shape of the narrow neck connecting the two lobes, which looked like two nested ice cream reveal that the asteroid is larger than originally estimated at about 8 km long and 3.5 kilometres added that in this first set of high-resolution images returned from the spacecraft, the full asteroid is not visible as the asteroid is larger than the imager's field of view. It will take up to a week for the team to downlink the remainder of the encounter data from the is not a primary science target of the Lucy mission. As planned, the Dinkinesh flyby was a system test for the mission. At the same time, this encounter was a full dress rehearsal, in which the team conducted a series of dense observations to maximize data Lucy spacecraft will spend most of the remainder of 2025 travelling through the main asteroid belt. Lucy will encounter the mission's first main target, the Jupiter Trojan asteroid Eurybates, in August 2027
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
See it: NASA's Lucy spacecraft sends back first close-up images of asteroid Donaldjohanson
NASA's Lucy spacecraft flew about 600 miles above an asteroid named Donaldjohanson on Easter Sunday, sending back the first close-ups of this oblong, potato-like object believed to be about 150 million years old. United Launch Alliance successfully launched Lucy on Oct. 16, 2021, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. After several gravity assists, the spacecraft is now in deep space, testing out its instruments on a few never-before-seen asteroids as it makes its way to the Trojan asteroids associated with Jupiter. Could Seashells Help Replace Plastics? California Researchers Think So After its first flyby of asteroid Dinkinesh in November, a main asteroid belt object, Lucy successfully made the second flyby of its mission, visiting Donaldjohanson on Sunday. This second encounter enabled Lucy's team to run a full test of its capabilities before heading on to study the Trojan asteroids. About 24 hours later, NASA and Lucy's team at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado, shared the first images of asteroid Donaldjohanson. "Asteroid Donaldjohanson has strikingly complicated geology," Lucy Principal Investigator Hal Levison, with SwRI, said. "As we study the complex structures in detail, they will reveal important information about the building blocks and collisional processes that formed the planets in our Solar System." The moving image above was pieced together with images taken about every 2 seconds using Lucy's Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager during the flyby. Glowing Aurora Lights On Uranus Help Scientists Determine A Day Is 28 Seconds Longer On Sideways Planet Asteroid Donaldjohanson is named after Donald Johanson, the American paleoanthropologist who uncovered the skeletal remains of Lucy, one of humanity's oldest known ancestors. The skeleton found in Ethiopia in 1974 was named after The Beatles' song "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" after a night of celebrating the discovery while listening to the band's songs. Lucy will continue traveling through the main asteroid belt before encountering its first Jupiter Trojan asteroid in August 2027. Associated with Jupiter because the asteroids are on the same orbital path, two groups of Trojan asteroids zoom ahead of Jupiter and trail behind the gas giant. These asteroids are made up of the same materials as the giant planets of our solar system: Jupiter, Saturn and article source: See it: NASA's Lucy spacecraft sends back first close-up images of asteroid Donaldjohanson
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA snaps detailed photos of ‘strikingly complicated' asteroid
NASA's Lucy spacecraft had its second rendezvous with an asteroid over the weekend, this time with the uniquely named Donaldjohanson space rock. On April 20, the probe's Lucy Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (L'LORRI) traveled within about 600 miles of the elongated asteroid while snapping images at roughly two-second intervals. The results showcase the asteroid's 'strikingly complicated geology,' according to Hal Levison, Lucy's principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute. 'As we study the complex structures in detail, they will reveal important information about the building blocks and collisional processes that formed the planets in our Solar System,' Levison added in a NASA statement on April 21. The first close look at Donaldjohanson appears to confirm astronomers' previous observations, particularly its 10-day brightness variation period. The photos depict an elongated asteroid that likely formed from after the collision of two smaller bodies. That said, researchers noted the unique neck shape connecting Donaldjohanson's two lobes. The asteroid also appears to be larger than initial estimates—measuring about 5 miles long and 2 miles wide. Donaldjohanson was actually wider than Lucy's field of view, and it will take about a week for the remaining data to downlink to Earth. This additional information will be parsed from information collected by L'Ralph color imager and infrared spectrometer as well as the L'TES thermal infrared spectrometer. Lucy's latest asteroid encounter took place roughly 16 months after passing within 230 miles of Dinkinesh (aka 'Dinky') and its 'baby asteroid' satellite, Selam. Donaldjohanson is the second of 10 asteroids scheduled to be studied on Lucy's 12-year-long mission. 'The potential to really open a new window into the history of our solar system when Lucy gets to the Trojan asteroids is immense,' said Tom Statler, a NASA program scientist for the Lucy will now spend most of the rest of 2025 hurtling through the solar system's main asteroid belt as it closes in on its main target–the Jupiter Trojan asteroid Eurybates. The spacecraft's final flyby is on track to take place in August 2027.
