NASA's Lucy probe captures asteroid snapshot
The Lucy probe has captured an image of the asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson. NASA has released photos of this object. "These early images of Donaldjohanson are again showing the tremendous capabilities of the Lucy spacecraft as an engine of discovery," says one of the researchers.
The object was recorded on 20th April. According to NASA, the Lucy probe was at a distance of approximately 600 miles (about 965 kilometres) from the asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson. The probe sent an image of this object back to Earth. In a statement, NASA admits that the unexpected shape of the narrow "neck" connecting the two main parts was surprising.
"Asteroid Donaldjohanson has strikingly complicated geology. As we study the complex structures in detail, they will reveal important information about the building blocks and collisional processes that formed the planets in our solar system," said Hal Levison, the principal investigator of the Lucy mission from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
The probe recorded the asteroid. It is now heading towards Jupiter
Donaldjohanson is 5 miles long and 2 miles wide at its widest point. In the first high-resolution images, the entire object is not visible because it is too large relative to the camera's field of view. Sending all the data from this flyby will take about a week. The full set of data will allow for a more complete picture of the asteroid's shape.
For the Lucy probe, this is not the first encounter with such an object. It previously captured the asteroid Dinkinesh. Donaldjohanson is not the primary research object of the mission. The Lucy probe will spend the rest of 2025 travelling through the main asteroid belt. In August 2027, it will reach the first main target of the mission – Jupiter’s Trojan asteroid, Eurybates.
"These early images of Donaldjohanson are again showing the tremendous capabilities of the Lucy spacecraft as an engine of discovery. The potential to really open a new window into the history of our solar system when Lucy gets to the Trojan asteroids is immense," believes Tom Statler, a scientist with the Lucy programme at NASA's headquarters in Washington.
