Countdown Is On For Launch Of NASA’s Bold Lucy Mission To Explore Ancient Asteroids

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Saturday, October 16, NASA volition marque past by launching the Lucy mission, the archetypal ngo to survey the mysterious Trojan asteroids.

Named aft characters successful Greek mythology, this unsocial radical of asteroids circles the Sun successful 2 swarms, with 1 radical starring up of Jupiter successful its path, the different trailing down it.

New results from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Explorer, oregon WISE, uncover that the Jovian Trojans – asteroids that thigh the prima successful the aforesaid orbit arsenic Jupiter – are uniformly acheronian with a hint of burgundy color, and person matte surfaces that bespeak small sunlight. The results are illustrated successful this artist’s concept. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

These past Trojan asteroids are virtually untouched since the commencement of our star system, and similar fossils connected Earth, clasp important clues to the past.

Trojan asteroids are remnants of the past worldly that formed the outer planets immoderate 4.5 cardinal years ago.

During the 12-year-journey, Lucy volition sojourn an unprecedented 8 antithetic asteroids, a Main Belt asteroid and 7 Trojans, during its epic journey.

Lucy’s sanction is simply a motion to the celebrated 3.2-million-year-old “Lucy” skeleton that helped scientists portion unneurotic quality evolution. Just arsenic the Lucy fossil changed our knowing of quality evolution, this Lucy successful the entity volition revolutionize our knowing of the Solar System’s origins.

Lucy volition beryllium the archetypal abstraction ngo to survey the Trojan asteroids. (Image Credit: Southwest Research Institute)

Lucy is the archetypal spacecraft to sojourn this radical of asteroids, and it’ll besides beryllium the archetypal probe to instrumentality to the vicinity of Earth from the outer star strategy erstwhile it swings backmost to set course.

This illustration shows the Lucy spacecraft passing 1 of the Trojan Asteroids adjacent Jupiter.
(Credit: Southwest Research Institute)

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Fun Fact: When the Lucy spacecraft flies into the entity connected Oct 16, it volition beryllium carrying a 3.98 gm, oregon 19.9 carat, diamond with it. This manufactured diamond (1-mm heavy and 38 mm successful diameter) serves arsenic the beam splitter for Lucy’s far-infrared spectrometer, L’TES. That instrumentality volition allow scientists to find the temperature, and frankincense infer the aboveground properties, of the Trojan asteroids.