Photo credit: science.nasa.gov
NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Provides Insights into Asteroid Donaldjohanson
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft has successfully conducted its second asteroid encounter, capturing striking images of a uniquely shaped fragment that dates back approximately 150 million years. The spacecraft passed within roughly 600 miles (960 km) of the asteroid, named Donaldjohanson, on April 20, 2025, beginning to transmit valuable data back to Earth.
Previously, Donaldjohanson exhibited notable variations in brightness during a 10-day observational period. Initial imagery from Lucy confirmed expectations, revealing what appears to be an elongated contact binary. This formation typically occurs when two smaller celestial bodies collide. However, the Lucy team was taken aback by the peculiar shape of the narrow neck connecting the two lobes, reminiscent of two stacked ice cream cones.
Hal Levison, the principal investigator for Lucy from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, commented on the findings. “Asteroid Donaldjohanson possesses a remarkably complex geology,” he stated. “A detailed study of its intricate structures will yield invaluable information about the foundational materials and collisional processes that contributed to the formation of planets in our Solar System.”
From initial assessments of the high-resolution images captured by the spacecraft’s L’LORRI imager, the asteroid appears larger than previously estimated, measuring approximately 5 miles (8 km) in length and 2 miles (3.5 km) at its widest point. Due to the asteroid’s size, the imager was unable to capture the entire object in one frame. It is anticipated that it will take up to a week to download the rest of the encounter data, which will help paint a fuller picture of the asteroid’s overall morphology.
While Donaldjohanson is not a primary science target for Lucy, like the spacecraft’s first asteroid flyby target Dinkinesh, this encounter served as a comprehensive test to enhance the mission’s observational capabilities. The team orchestrated a series of detailed observations to optimize data collection. In addition to L’LORRI, data gathered from Lucy’s other scientific instruments, including the L’Ralph color imager and infrared spectrometer, along with the L’TES thermal infrared spectrometer, will be processed and analyzed in the coming weeks.
In the latter part of 2025, the Lucy spacecraft will traverse the main asteroid belt. The mission is set to reach its first major target, the Jupiter Trojan asteroid Eurybates, in August 2027.
“These initial images of Donaldjohanson are showcasing the incredible capabilities of the Lucy spacecraft as a powerful tool for discovery,” remarked Tom Statler, a program scientist for the mission at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “There is immense potential to unveil new insights into the history of our solar system as Lucy approaches the Trojan asteroids.”
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, oversees the overarching mission management and safety protocols for Lucy, in addition to designing and constructing the L’Ralph instrument. The Boulder office of SwRI leads the science team, which is responsible for scientific observation planning and data analysis. Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, played a pivotal role in building the spacecraft, designing its orbital trajectory, and handling flight operations. Navigation duties for Lucy are managed collaboratively by Goddard and KinetX Aerospace, while the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, developed the L’LORRI instrument. The L’TES instrument was designed and built by Arizona State University. Lucy is recognized as the thirteenth mission within NASA’s Discovery Program, which is managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Source
science.nasa.gov