2023-11-03 11:01:45
Two years ago, NASA’s Lucy mission took off to explore, within five years, the Trojan asteroids associated with Jupiter’s orbit. On its long journey, this November 1, the ship flew over another much closer one of the main belt and it has turned out that it is not only their first asteroid, but their first two.
The first images returned by Lucy reveal that the small asteroid called Dinkinesh is actually a binary asteroid.
“Dinkinesh really lived up to his name; this is wonderful,” says Hal Levison, referring to the meaning of Dinkinesh in the Amharic language (of Ethiopia), “wonderful”. Levison, Lucy’s principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute, adds: “When Lucy was originally selected for the flight, we planned to fly by seven asteroids. With the addition of Dinkinesh, two Trojan moons and now this satellite, we we’ve raised it to eleven.”
Dinkinesh has truly lived up to his name [en lengua amárica]: marvelous
Hal Levison (Southwest Research Institute)
A binary system they seek
In the weeks leading up to this flyby, Lucy’s team had wondered if Dinkinesh could be a binary system, since Lucy’s instruments observed that the asteroid’s brightness changed over time. The first images of the encounter cleared up all doubts: it is a close binary system.
From a preliminary analysis of the first available images, the team estimates that the largest body measures approximately 790 m at its widest point, while the smallest measures 220 m.
The largest body of this ast is estimated to measure approximately 790 m at its widest point, while the smallest measures 220 m.
This meeting served mainly as flight test of the spacecraft, specifically focusing on testing the system that allows Lucy to autonomously follow an asteroid as it flies by at about 16,000 km/h, called terminal tracking system.
“This is a series of astonishing images. They indicate that this tracking system worked as planned, even when the universe presented us with a more difficult target than we expected,” he notes. Tom Kennedyguidance and navigation engineer at the Lockheed Martin company (USA), because “it is one thing to simulate, test and practice; and quite another to see how it really happens.”
Although this encounter was carried out as an engineering test, team scientists are studying the data to better understand the nature of the small asteroids.
“We knew this was going to be the smallest main belt asteroid seen up close,” he says. Keith NollLucy project scientist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
It is the smallest main belt asteroid seen up close.
“The fact that there are two of them makes it even more exciting,” he adds. “In some ways, these asteroids resemble the near-Earth asteroid binary.” Didymos y Dimorphos what did you see DART, but there are some really interesting differences that we will investigate.”
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It will take up to a week for the team to download the rest of the encounter data from the spacecraft. It will use them to evaluate the behavior of the spacecraft during the encounter and to prepare for the next approach to an asteroid, the main belt asteroid. Donaldjohansonin 2025.
The Lucy spacecraft will then be well prepared to meet the main objectives of the mission: the Jupiter Trojan asteroids, starting in 2027.
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