Space countdown: NASA prepares a new encounter between Lucy probe and a young asteroid

NASA’s Lucy Mission to Explore Asteroid DonaldjohansonOur Lucy mission is headed toward the Jupiter Trojans, an unexplored population of asteroids considered fossils of planet formation. Along the way, Lucy is traveling through the main asteroid belt, en route to asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson, which it will fly by on April 20, 2025. This asteroid is named after paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson, who in 1974 discovered the fossilized skeleton o…

The unmanned spacecraft is 12.5 minutes from Earth light, so every signal sent will take that time to arrive and will use three instruments for the recording of scientific data. Read more