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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Lucy spacecraft is on an epic 6-billion-kilometre-long journey to study the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. The space agency says that Lucy is preparing for its first close-up look at an asteroid, which will happen on Wednesday. Up to this point, the asteroid has been an unresolved smudge even on the best telescopes.
And that asteroid will be “Dinkinesh,” which is about a kilometre wide and orbits the Sun in the main belt of asteroids between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The mission has been visually tracking Dinkinesh since September 3, and it will be the first asteroid that Lucy will visit on its 12-year-long journey. It is possible for Lucy to observe so many because it won’t stop or orbit the asteroids. Instead, it will collect as much data as possible as it speeds by them in a “flyby.”
NASA launched the Lucy mission on October 16, 2021 and its main aim was to observe the jupiter Trojan asteroids. That refers to a huge group of small bodies that orbit the Sun in two “swarms.” One of the swarms leads Jupiter in its orbit while the other trails behind the gas giant. But before all that, Lucy will first fly by Dinkinesh today and another asteroid in the main belt called Donaldjohnson.
The Dinkinesh encounter is intended as a test for Lucy’s systems. This means that scientific observations will be simpler than for the main mission targets. Two hours before the close approach, the spacecraft and the platform that holds its instruments will move into position. Once it is in place, the spacecraft will begin collecting data with its high-resolution camera and its thermal-infrared camera.
