So, like, it turns out that NASA’s Lucy spacecraft got some sick pics of this asteroid called Donaldjohanson, and it’s, like, super old, dude. This space rock formed when two smaller rocks smashed into each other, creating a weird peanut shape, but with one side bigger than the other.
Lucy got as close as 600 miles to Donaldjohanson, which is about the size of Montana, and snapped some high-quality pics on Sunday. Researchers are hoping that by studying this asteroid, they can learn more about how the planets in our solar system came to be.
The Lucy mission launched in 2021 and is on its way to check out some ancient asteroids orbiting the sun in the main asteroid belt. These Trojan asteroids are billions of years old, hanging out on either side of Jupiter. They might hold the secrets to how Jupiter, Neptune, and Saturn were created, which is pretty rad if you ask me.
Donaldjohanson is a decent-sized asteroid between Mars and Jupiter, orbiting the sun from a distance that’s, like, super far. It’s estimated to be around 5 miles long and 2 miles wide at its widest point, making it pretty small compared to the other asteroids Lucy wants to scope out.
Lucy snapped these pics using its Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager, but not the whole asteroid is visible in the images. Researchers are stoked to see what else they can learn about Donaldjohanson as they get more data from the spacecraft.
The recent encounter with Donaldjohanson was described as a “full dress rehearsal” for Lucy before it visits the first Trojan asteroid in 2027. NASA’s program scientist for the Lucy mission is hyped about the potential for discovering more about the history of our solar system as Lucy continues its mission.
