NASA’s Lucy spacecraft is about to make its very first flyby of an asteroid on Wednesday, Nov. 1. When Lucy flies past the half-mile-wide asteroid, named Dinkinesh, the moment will mark the start of the probe's 12-lear-long tour of 10 asteroid subjects. Ultimately, the planned legacy of this spacecraft is for it to become the first to investigate the Trojan asteroids — asteroids that follow Jupiter’s orbit around the sun and are believed to be remnants of our solar system's formation.
Lucy has been preparing for its visit to Dinkinesh since Sept. 3, keeping the tiny asteroid in its sights to the best of its ability. But on the first day of November (today), the spacecraft will get its first close look at the space rock. This is the first time Lucy will be getting a close look at an object that, up to this point, has only been an unresolved smudge in the best telescopes.
Lucy launched at 5:34 a.m. EDT (0934 GMT) on Oct. 16, 2021, from Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, atop an Atlas V rocket. Then, the spacecraft returned to Earth for a gravity assist one year later, on Oct. 16, 2022. Passing 220 miles (350 kilometers) above the surface of Earth, Lucy was slingshot toward the main asteroid belt around 300 million miles (480 million kilometers) away — which brings us to now.
Today, Lucy will reach Dinkinesh at 12:54 EDT (1654 GMT), it will make its closest approach to the asteroid, coming to within 270 miles (430 kilometers) of the space rock’s surface. Lucy’s flyby of Dinkinesh is expected to represent an important test of the spacecraft’s instruments prior to its Trojan asteroid destination. An hour before its close approach of Dinkinesh, for instance, Lucy will begin tracking the target using its terminal-tracking system.
Then, around 8 minutes before close approach, the spacecraft will begin collecting data about Dinkinesh with its color imager and infrared spectrometer. Once close enough to the asteroid, Lucy will begin collecting data with its high-resolution camera (L'LORRI) and its thermal-infrared camera (L'TES). Such continuous imaging and tracking of Dinkinesh will continue for almost another hour.
Edited by : www.linkedin.com/in/priyanka-v23
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