Exploring Jupiter’s Trojan Asteroid Family: Lucy Spacecraft’s Historic Flyby of Asteroid Dinkinesh and Future Mission Preparations

2023-11-02 05:38:00
(Xinhua file photo: Atlas V401 rocket with Lucy spacecraft Take off from Launch Site No. 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. US state of Florida, Oct. 16, 2021) LOS ANGELES, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) — NASA reports that the Lucy spacecraft is scheduled to The flyby of asteroid Dinkinesh on Wednesday (Nov. 1) marks the first close approach of the asteroid. The flyby will allow the Lucy mission to test its instruments. As for preparations for a visit to the Trojan asteroid group, which orbits the Sun in the same orbit as Jupiter, during the next decade, NASA has determined that the Dinkinesh asteroid is less than one kilometer wide. It orbits the Sun in an asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The Lucy spacecraft has been following the asteroid Dinkinesh since September 3. Asteroid Dinkinesh will be the first of 10 asteroids that the Lucy spacecraft will visit during its 12-year spaceflight, the main goal of the Lucy mission. which was released on Oct. 16, 2021, is a survey of Jupiter’s Trojan asteroid family. This is a group of small objects orbiting the Sun that have never been observed before.
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