NASA’s Lucy spacecraft is about to have its second shut encounter with an asteroid

A NASA spacecraft will make a detailed strategy to an asteroid in the primary belt on Sunday afternoon, within the second of a number of asteroid flybys deliberate for its 12-year mission to check remnants of the early photo voltaic system. The Lucy spacecraft can be 596 miles (960 km) from asteroid Donaldjohanson — named after the paleoanthropologist who found the “Lucy” hominin fossil — on the closest level of its cross, which can happen at 1:51PM ET, in response to NASA. Lucy will use three devices to seize detailed observations as the article will get nearer, rotating with the asteroid over just a few hours to get the total image. It can cease monitoring simply earlier than the asteroid is nearest, when it’ll need to defend its devices as a result of place of the solar to stop damaging them.

The spacecraft beforehand visited a small asteroid known as 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 from two smaller objects touching one another,” NASA defined on the time. After Donaldjohanson, Lucy will transfer on to its major targets, a handful of “Trojan” asteroids orbiting the solar in the identical path as Jupiter. It’s anticipated to achieve the primary of these objects in 2027.

“Each asteroid has a special story to inform, and these tales weave collectively to color the historical past of our photo voltaic system,” Tom Statler, Lucy mission program scientist, stated in a press launch. “The truth that every new asteroid we go to knocks our socks off means we’re solely starting to grasp the depth and richness of that historical past. Telescopic observations are hinting that Donaldjohanson goes to have an fascinating story, and I’m totally anticipating to be stunned — once more.”