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NASA's Lucy probe is set to fly on April 20, 2025

NASA's Lucy probe is scheduled to make a significant flyby of the asteroid Donaldjohanson on Easter Sunday, April 20, 2025. Here are some detailed aspects of this mission: Mission Objectives: The Lucy mission aims to study the Trojan asteroids, which are believed to be remnants from the early solar system. By examining these asteroids, scientists hope to gain insights into the formation and evolution of the solar system. Asteroid Donaldjohanson: Named after paleontologist Donald Johanson, who discovered the famous Australopithecus fossil "Lucy," this asteroid orbits the Sun in a region known as the L4 Trojan camp, situated ahead of Jupiter in its orbit. It is one of the many Trojan asteroids that are thought to contain primitive materials. Flyby Details: During the flyby, Lucy will use its suite of scientific instruments to gather data about Donaldjohanson's surface composition, geology, and morphology. The close encounter will allow for high-resolution im...

New algorithm ensnares its first 'potentially hazardous' asteroid

An asteroid discovery algorithm -- designed to uncover near-Earth asteroids for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's upcoming 10-year survey of the night sky -- has identified its first 'potentially hazardous' asteroid, a term for space rocks in Earth's vicinity that scientists like to keep an eye on. The roughly 600-foot-long asteroid, designated 2022 SF289, was discovered during a test drive of the algorithm with the ATLAS survey in Hawaii. Finding 2022 SF289, which poses no risk to Earth for the foreseeable future, confirms that the next-generation algorithm, known as HelioLinc3D, can identify near-Earth asteroids with fewer and more dispersed observations than required by today's methods.

from Space & Time News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/6g2SsI8

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