Lucy's probe sent photos of the asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson to Earth. Scientists surprised her dimensions – the object was so long that the probe had a problem with capturing it in full. This is the last stop on the way to the final mission goal.
In 2021 in cosmos Lucy's probe was fired. The purpose of the mission is to study asteroids from the Trojan group – heavenly bodies moving in the same orbit as Jupiter. It is to reach them in 2027, but on the way beyond the great lane planetoid Scientists have set her several “stops”. On Sunday, Lucy approached the last of them, asteroids 52246 Donaldjohanson.
Close meeting
As she said NASALucy passed the celestial body at a distance of 960 kilometers, and when approaching she took a set of photos. The asteroid turned out to be greater than the scientists predicted – it is about 8 kilometers long and 3.5 kilometers wide at the widest place. The shape is a bit like an irregular bowling and it is so long that in the photos sent to the ground, the poll could not be captured in its entirety.
Asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson in photos from the Lucy probeNASA/Goddard/Swri/Johns Hopkins APL/Noirlab
Asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson was chosen not by accident – she received a name in honor of one of the paleontologists who discovered the skeleton of Australopitka Lucy in Ethiopia.
Researchers recommended a probe to send a set of data back to the ground, which could take up to a week. The team will analyze the information to get to know the relatively young asteroid and make sure that the spaceship and scientists are well prepared to observe the main goals of the mission.
Source of the main photo: NASA/Goddard/Swri/Johns Hopkins APL/Noirlab