The Lucy spacecraft's primary mission is to explore a series of asteroids in Jupiter's orbit.
A spacecraft exploring an asteroid belt successfully 'phoned home' to NASA after a high-speed asteroid encounter on Wednesday. The spacecraft, named Lucy, has a primary mission of exploring Jupiter's Trojan asteroids, a series of asteroids trapped in the gas giant's orbit. The new high-speed encounter was with a small main belt asteroid that NASA called Dinkinesh, which is '10 to 100 times smaller' than the Trojan asteroids.
Multiple features on the spacecraft were meant to be activated during the encounter, including a high-resolution camera that took a series of images every 15 seconds while passing close by the asteroid. A color imager and an infrared spectrometer were also meant to be activated.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
NASA's Lucy spacecraft swoops past first of 10 asteroids on long journey to JupiterNASA's Lucy spacecraft has encountered the first of 10 asteroids on its long journey out to Jupiter
Read more »
NASA's Lucy spacecraft swoops past first of 10 asteroids on long journey to JupiterNASA's Lucy spacecraft has encountered the first of 10 asteroids on its long journey out to Jupiter.
Read more »
NASA's Lucy spacecraft swoops past first of 10 asteroids on long journey to JupiterNASA's Lucy spacecraft has encountered the first of 10 asteroids on its long journey out to Jupiter.
Read more »
NASA's Lucy spacecraft swoops past first of 10 asteroids on long journey to JupiterNASA's Lucy spacecraft on Wednesday encountered the first of 10 asteroids on its long journey to Jupiter.
Read more »
NASA's Lucy spacecraft swoops past first of 10 asteroids on long journey to JupiterNASA's Lucy spacecraft has encountered the first of 10 asteroids on its long journey out to Jupiter. The spacecraft on Wednesday zoomed past the pint-sized Dinkinesh in the main asteroid belt beyond Mars. Lucy came within 270 miles of the asteroid, testing its instruments in a dry run for the bigger and more alluring asteroids ahead.
Read more »
NASA’s Lucy Asteroid Mission Zips Past a ‘Dinky’ Space RockNASA’s Lucy mission is starting its science studies way ahead of schedule
Read more »