NASA's Lucy spacecraft, launched on Oct. 16, 2021, has spent five years journeying toward the Jupiter Trojan asteroids, and it has already made several surprising discoveries. The mission, led by the Southwest Research Institute, plans to visit 11 asteroids over 12 years. Об этом рассказывает сайт Phys.org.
In November 2023, Lucy flew by the main-belt asteroid Dinkinesh and found it had a satellite, Selam, which turned out to be a contact binary—a single object made of two touching parts. In April 2025, the spacecraft flew by Donaldjohanson, discovering it is also a contact binary, with a peanut-shaped structure and a smooth neck connecting its two lobes.
Lucy has also overcome engineering challenges. Shortly after launch, one of its solar arrays failed to fully deploy, but engineers fixed it from millions of miles away. The spacecraft has performed two Earth gravity assists, boosting its speed and setting it on course for its first Trojan encounter in August 2027.
Lucy observed NASA's DART spacecraft impact the asteroid Dimorphos in September 2022 and the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS in September 2025, providing unique views of these rare events. The mission's main targets lie ahead, with close-up looks at four Trojan systems planned between August 2027 and November 2028.