Artist’s concept of the Lucy spacecraft approaching a pair of Trojan asteroids. | Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA’s Lucy Mission to Examine Asteroid Donaldjohanson
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft, renowned for its asteroid exploration, is en route to its next target: asteroid Donaldjohanson. This space rock, as determined by recent research, is approximately 150 million years old.
Donaldjohanson Flyby: A Rehearsal for Trojan Asteroid Encounters
The Lucy mission will conduct a flyby of the asteroid Donaldjohanson, which spans three miles (five kilometers) in diameter, on April 20. This maneuver primarily serves as preparation for subsequent encounters, particularly Lucy’s main objective: Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids. The ambitious 12-year mission plans for Lucy to explore a total of 11 asteroids within the Trojan swarms that precede and follow Jupiter.
Donaldjohanson: A Potentially Unique Asteroid
Every asteroid encounter is significant for the Lucy mission. A recent study from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, indicates that Donaldjohanson could present unforeseen discoveries. This prospect is fueled by the intriguing findings from Lucy’s previous asteroid flyby of Dinkinesh, which revealed unexpected characteristics.
Unexpected Features of Donaldjohanson
Simone Marchi, Deputy Principal Investigator for the Lucy mission at Southwest Research Institute and lead author of the study, stated that ground-based observations suggest Donaldjohanson is an unusual object.
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Through computer modeling, Marchi and his team deduced that Donaldjohanson originated roughly 150 million years ago from the fragmentation of a larger asteroid. Furthermore, their analysis indicates significant changes in Donaldjohanson’s orbit and rotation since its formation.
David Vokrouhlický, a professor at Charles University in Prague and study co-author, added that data implies the asteroid might be elongated and rotate slowly, possibly due to thermal torques affecting its spin over time.
Data Acquisition During Flyby
During the upcoming flyby next month, Lucy will gather crucial data regarding Donaldjohanson’s shape, surface geology, and cratering history. This data is especially valuable as it can only be obtained through close-range observation.
Credit: SwRI/ESA/OSIRIS/NASA/Goddard/Johns Hopkins APL/NOIRLab/University of Arizona/JAXA/University of Tokyo & Collaborators
Comparing Donaldjohanson to Bennu and Ryugu
Prior missions have successfully sampled asteroids Bennu and Ryugu. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission obtained samples from Bennu, while the Hayabusa2 mission from JAXA collected samples from Ryugu.
Marchi noted the anticipation for the flyby, highlighting the apparent differences between Donaldjohanson and Bennu and Ryugu. However, he also acknowledged the possibility of discovering unforeseen similarities.
Trojan Asteroids: Time Capsules of the Solar System
Trojan asteroids are of significant interest to researchers due to their potential to offer insights into the formation of our solar system. Hal Levison, the mission’s Principal Investigator from Southwest Research Institute, described these relics as “fossils of the planet formation process,” containing crucial clues to understanding our solar system’s history.
Lucy Mission Launch and Trajectory
The Lucy spacecraft was launched on October 16, 2021, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, propelled by a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.
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The Need for Close-Up Data
Keith Noll, Lucy project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, emphasized the limitations of ground-based observations and theoretical models. He stated that close-up data is essential for validating these models and achieving a more detailed understanding.
“Lucy’s upcoming flyby will provide us with precisely that,” Noll concluded.
Findings from this research were published in The Planetary Science Journal on March 17.