A total of 10! NASA asteroid probe “Lucy” Adds one asteroid as probe target | Portal sorae to space site

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced on January 26 that the asteroid 1999 VD57 in the asteroid belt has just been added to the exploration targets of the asteroid probe Lucy, launched one year and three months ago it was announced.

Lucy, launched on October 16, 2021 (Japan time), aims to explore asteroids belonging to the asteroid belt and the Trojan Jupiter group. Due to the visits to multiple asteroids, the mission is scheduled for 12 years from 2021 to 2033. With the addition of 1999 VD57, the total number of asteroids targeted for exploration has increased to 10.

The Jupiter Trojan group is one of the groups of asteroids that orbit the Sun. Among the Lagrangian points where the gravitational forces of the Sun and Jupiter and the centrifugal force exerted on the celestial bodies are in balance, namely the vicinity of “point L4” on Jupiter’s orbit (Orbital Asteroids are classified in two areas: the area in front of Jupiter, where it is located, and the area near the L5 point (the same as behind).

【▲ Animation showing the locations of the planets from Mercury to Jupiter (white) and Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids (green) during the Lucy mission. Trojan asteroids are divided into groups that precede and follow Jupiter (Credit: CAS/Petr Scheirich Astronomical Institute (used with permission)))]

Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids are considered ‘fossil’ objects that preserve information about the formation and evolution of planets in the early solar system. Because of the proximity of these objects, the mission and the probe are named after the famous fossilized human skeleton “Lucy”, a member of the Australopithecus afarensis that lived about 3.2 million years ago.

Related: NASA’s “Lucy” probe is scheduled to launch on October 16, the first approach to treat Jupiter Trojan asteroids (October 15, 2021)

On October 16, 2022, one year after launch, Lucy performed her first live Earth swing to change her orbit. Lucy, which went into an elliptical orbit with a period of about two years in this swing-live, is expected to approach the Earth again on December 12, 2024, perform a second swing of the Earth, and enter an orbit towards the trojans forwards Jupiter. in.

Lucy’s first planned target for the mission was the asteroid Donald Johansson in the approaching asteroid belt in April 2025. However, a closer look at the 500,000 asteroids with exact known orbits in the asteroid belt found that they would pass within 40,000 miles of 1999 VD57, even without correcting their orbits. Therefore, the operation team decided to add this asteroid to the target body and correct the orbit so that it could approach to about 280 miles (about 450 km).

[▲Ogwymp2023Lucyasteroid1999VD57aychwanegwydatytargedarchwilioa’rberthynasleoliadolrhwngyblaneda’rgwregysasteroid(Credyd:CanolfanHedfanGofodGoddardNASA)]

Lucy’s flyby observation of 1999 VD57 is scheduled for November 1, 2023. The acquisition of a close-up image of 1999 VD57 in this observation is also a technical test of the automatic asteroid tracking system adopted on Lucy. About a year and a half later, Lucy, who observed the Donald Johansson above, went for the Trojan group, the L4 point before Jupiter, to Eurybates and its satellite Cata in August 2027, and Polimere in September of the same year. and its satellite, Leucos in April 2028 and Oras in November 2028.

After completing her exploration in the L4 Jupiter Trojan complex, Lucy returned to Earth again, and in December 2030, she performed the third swing-by-Earth to change her orbit. This time, it will go to the L5 Trojan constellation following Jupiter, and in March 2033, it will complete its mission by conducting flyby observations of the double asteroids “Patroclus” and “Menoetius”.

【▲ List of asteroids Lucy will explore (imaginary image). Top row from left: Double asteroids Patroclus, Menoetius, and Eurybates. Bottom row from left: Oras, Leucos, Polimere, and Donald Johansson. Of these, Eurybates has a Kate satellite, and Polimere has one (Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Imaging Laboratory)]

Source

• Image Credit: Southwest Research Institute, CAS/Petr Scheirich Astronomical Institute (used with permission), NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Imaging Laboratory
• NASA – NASA’s Lucy Team Announces New Asteroid Target
• SwRI – the Lucy team led by SwRI announces a new asteroid target

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