Lucy is a NASA mission to explore the trojan asteroids in Jupiter's orbit. Along its journey, it will also explore two asteroids in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

The graphic below shows the trajectory and major events of the mission.

Nov 11, 2023: flyby of main belt asteroid Dinkinesh.
April 20, 2025: flyby of main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson.
2027-2028: survey five L4 trojan asteroids.
2030: Earth flyby
2033: Visit two L5 trojans.

https://lucy.swri.edu/mission/Tour.html
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The following map of the solar system shows the location of the Lucy spacecraft, the planets, asteroid Donaldjohanson in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and the Trojan asteroids in Jupiter's orbit on April 20, 2025.

https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/solar-system/#/sc_lucy?rate=0&time=2025-04-20T17:51:00.000+00:00
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Here is a video overview of the Lucy flyby of Asteroid Donaldjohanson on April 20.

~30 minutes before closest approach, Lucy will orient itself to track the asteroid, turning its high-gain antenna away from Earth. The two imaging and one spectrometer instruments will be active.

40 seconds before closest approach, Lucy will stop tracking DJ to protect its sensitive instruments from the Sun.

Comms link will be established an hour later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL9_0sagfBg
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/lucy/nasas-lucy-spacecraft-prepares-second-asteroid-encounter/
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Asteroid Donaldjohanson is part of the main belt of asteroids located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It is a fragment of a collision 150 million years ago that produced the Erigone family of asteroids.

Distance from Sun : 1.936 - 2.830 AU
Orbital period: 3.68 yr (1,343 d)
Mean diameter: 3.895 km
Rotation period: 252 hr

DJ's periodically varying lightcurve suggests that it must either be highly elongated in shape or have a satellite companion. Stay tuned!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/52246_Donaldjohanson
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The Jupiter trojans (aka trojan asteroids) are a large group of asteroids located in Jupiter's orbit around the Sun.

The group known as the Greek camp is located around the L4 Lagrange point, 60° ahead of Jupiter, the Trojan camp is located around the L5 Lagrange point, 60° behind.

There are millions of asteroids between here and Jupiter and trillions of icy ones beyond the orbit of Pluto. Only the nearest and largest ones have been catalogued.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid
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The Lucy mission is named after the 3.2 million old Lucy hominin fossils discovered in 1974 in Ethiopia, because study of the trojans can "revolutionize our knowledge of planetary origins."

Dinkinesh is the Ethiopian name for the Lucy fossil. The name means "you are wonderful" in the Amharic language.

Asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson is named after one of the co-discoverers of the Lucy fossil.

The names for these two asteroids were recommended by the Lucy team.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_(Australopithecus)
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The Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) hominid was named after the 1967 Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". Apparently, the song was played loudly and repeatedly in the expedition camp all evening after the team's first day of work on the excavation site.

Also, the Lucy spacecraft carries a lens and a beam splitter made of lab-grown diamonds for its L'TES instrument.
💎💎

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqcpkx8tfKI
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11214-023-01029-y
#Lucy
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"Australopithecus afarensis, mother and child" by paleoartist Mauricio Anton.

"Mauricio Antón Ortuzar (born 1961 in Bilbao, Spain) is a paleoartist and illustrator specializing in the scientific reconstruction of extinct life, well known for his influential paintings of hominids, extinct carnivores and other vertebrate fossil groups. He currently works in association with the Natural Science Museum in Madrid."

Goosebumps!

https://mauricioanton.wordpress.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauricio_Ant%C3%B3n
#Lucy
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The Lucy spacecraft carries a plaque as a time capsule, with messages from prominent thinkers of our time and positions of the planets on the date of Lucy’s launch.

Carl Sagan has a message for the present time with science under attack: "Cutting off fundamental, curiosity-driven science is like eating the seed corn. We may have a little more to eat next winter but what will we plant so we and our children will have enough to get through the winters to come?"

https://lucy.swri.edu/LucyPlaque.html
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The Lucy spacecraft is currently 229,000 km from asteroid Donaldjohanson.

It is communicating with the NASA DSN site in Canberra at 100 kbps.
👍
https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/solar-system/#/sc_lucy/distance?to=52246_donaldjohanson
https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/dsn-now/dsn.html
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