5 November 2023
By Seungwoo Song
NASA's Lucy spacecraft recently approached its first asteroid target, revealing a surprising discovery. The asteroid, named Dinkinesh, turned out to be a binary system comprising a larger primary asteroid and a smaller "moon" orbiting it. This revelation intrigued scientists, as it is one of the smallest major belt asteroids encountered up close and the fact that it's a double asteroid adds to its scientific interest.
Lucy's encounter with Dinkinesh was just a brief stop on its mission, as it is bound for more ambitious targets known as Trojan asteroids. These Trojans are remnants from the early formation of the outer planets and are locked in stable orbits around the sun, sharing Jupiter's path. Over the course of its mission, Lucy will visit nine more such space rocks by 2033, contributing to NASA's comprehensive efforts to expand our understanding of celestial objects.
According to NASA planetary scientist Thomas Statler, the Trojans represent one of the last significant groups of objects in our solar system that have yet to be closely studied, and Lucy is poised to do that for the first time.