About Lucy’s encounters
The Easter encounter took place three and a half years after Lucy was launched, and 17 months after the 52-foot-wide probe flew past its first target asteroid, Dinkinesh, and a mini-moon called Selam. Like Donaldjohanson, Selam was found to be a contact binary. Investigatros consider both of Lucy’s encounters in the main asteroid belt, which lies among the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, to be mere warmups for the mission’s main event: a detailed study of so-called Jupiter Trojan asteroids.
Such asteroids are trapped harmlessly at resonance points in Jupiter’s orbit due to the giant planet’s gravitational influence. No spacecraft has ever gotten close to a Jupiter Trojan. This location is a very interesting research topic for the entire scientific community. Moreover, it should be stressed that the complexity of this fact also opens doors to new lines of research that might not have been conceived at first.
Tom Statler explanation: “tremendous capabilites” of Lucy’s instruments
Tom Statler, NASA program scientist for the $989 million Lucy mission, explained taht the quality of the early imagery exemplifies the “tremendous capabilities” of Lucy’s instruments. “The potential to really open a new window into the history of our solar system when Lucy gets to the Trojan asteroids is immense,” he said. Lucy is an asteroid that is renewing the scientific community’s previous studies.
New investigations for the incoming time
Over the incomng few weeks, investigators will retrieve, process and study data from Lucy’s black-and-white imager as well as its color imager, infrared spectrometer and thermal infrared spectrometer. The spacecraft is scheduled to spend most of this year traveling through the main asteroid belt. Lucy’s first encounter with a Jupiter Trojan asteroid, known as Eurybates, is due to take place in August 2027. Four in addition Trojan encounters will follow among 2027 and 2033. The scientific community is aware of Lucy’s potential and the relevance it has to be given to further asteroid research.
