On November 1, NASA confirmed that its Lucy spacecraft had successfully completed a flyby of the asteroid Dinkinesh, a relatively small space rock located in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter. This marks an important milestone in Lucy’s journey, as Dinkinesh, or « Dinky, » is the first of 10 asteroids the probe will visit over the next 12 years.
“Based on the information received, the team has determined that the spacecraft is healthy,” NASA officials said. wrote in a blog post after the flyover. “The team ordered the spacecraft to begin transmitting data collected during the encounter.”
In a word, the Mission Lucy is part of NASA’s ambitious effort to unlock the secrets of our solar systemIt’s from the past. Although Lucy will also pass by a few relatively close asteroids like Cutethe probe’s main goal is to fly past some more distant Trojan asteroids orbiting the sun alongside Jupiter like bundles of pebbles linked to the gravitational tides of a giant rock. Scientists want to know more about these Trojans because they are believed to be ancient relics of the solar system, like extra Lego bricks from the box that built the planets.
Related: NASA’s LUCY mission captures its asteroid targets for the first time
that of Lucy flyover of Dinkinesh can be considered a test in this regard, as many of the spacecraft’s instruments have now been oiled while collecting data on this first asteroid encounter, including a color imager, a high-resolution camera and an infrared spectrometer.
According to the blog post, it will take about a week for data from these tools to be transmitted to Earth, and the team is « eager to see how the spacecraft performed during this first flight test of a high-speed encounter with an asteroid.
Next, Lucy will return to Earth for a gravity assist that will help it zoom toward its second asteroid target: 52246 Donaldjohanson – named for the co-discoverer of the Lucy fossil (representative of one of the earliest human ancestors, for whom the ship space is named), the American paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson. And if you’re wondering, « Dinkinesh » is just another title for Lucy’s fossil.
It also means “you are wonderful,” as you are, Lucy.
