× Close
This image from an animated video provided by NASA depicts the Lucy spacecraft approaching an asteroid. On Wednesday, November 1, 2023, Lucy encountered the first of 10 asteroids on her long journey to Jupiter. Credit: NASA via AP
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft on Wednesday encountered the first of 10 asteroids on its long journey to Jupiter.
The spacecraft swooped Wednesday by the pint-sized Dinkenish, about 300 million miles (480 million kilometers) away in the main asteroid belt beyond Mars. It was a “fast hello,” according to NASA, as the spacecraft approached at 10,000 mph (16,000 km/h).
Lucy arrived within 270 miles (435 kilometers) of Dinkenish, testing its instruments in a test run in search of which larger, more attractive asteroids awaited. Dinkenish is only half a mile (1 kilometer) across, and is very likely the smallest space rock on Lucy’s tour.
Lucy’s main targets are so-called Trojans, swarms of unexplored asteroids near Jupiter that are time capsules from the dawn of the solar system. The spacecraft will swing in front of eight Trojans believed to be 10 to 100 times larger than Dinkenish. It is scheduled to pass by the last two asteroids in 2033.
NASA launched Lucy on its billion-dollar mission two years ago. The spacecraft is named after 3.2 million-year-old skeletal remains of a human ancestor found in Ethiopia in the 1970s. Lucy will then swing across an asteroid named after one of Lucy’s fossil discoverers: Donald Johansson.
× Close
A graphic showing the expected motion of NASA’s Lucy spacecraft and its instrument guidance platform (IPP) during its encounter with the Dinkenish asteroid. The spacecraft’s terminal tracking system is designed to effectively monitor Dinkinesh’s position, enabling the spacecraft and IPP to move independently in order to monitor the asteroid throughout the encounter. The yellow, blue, and gray arrows indicate the Sun, Earth, and Dinkenish directions, respectively. The red arrow indicates the movement of the spacecraft. Image credit: NASA/Goddard/SwRI
One of the two solar wings on the spacecraft remains disassembled. Flight controllers have given up trying to stabilize it, but it is believed to be stable enough for the entire mission.
Wednesday’s flyby culminates what NASA calls “asteroid autumn.” NASA brought back its first samples of asteroid debris in September. Then in October, it launched a spacecraft to a rare, metal-rich asteroid called Psyche.
Unlike those missions, Lucy will not stop at any asteroids or collect any samples.
It will take at least a week for the spacecraft to transmit all the images and data from the flyby.
Dinkenish has so far been just “an unresolved blot on the best telescopes,” Hal Levison, chief scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, said in a statement.
© 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
“Devoted student. Bacon advocate. Beer scholar. Troublemaker. Falls down a lot. Typical coffee enthusiast.”