The asteroid searching spacecraft Lucy will make its second gravity help of Earth immediately, swinging by our pale blue dot on its solution to a gaggle of asteroids generally known as the Trojans.
Lucy is a spacecraft on a 12-year journey into the distant photo voltaic system, the place it can examine a gaggle of asteroids to raised perceive the origins of the outer planets and the delivery of the photo voltaic system. But Lucy wants just a little push to get there, and its upcoming flyby is about to happen tonight round 11:15 p.m. Eastern Time, in accordance with to a NASA assertion.
It is a standard assumption that after a mission launches, it’s gone, by no means to be seen round these elements once more. That is commonly unfaithful—spacecraft don’t carry a lot gasoline and infrequently leverage the gravitational pull of photo voltaic system objects to hasten their journey to (comparatively) faraway elements of the universe. Tonight, Lucy will do precisely that, slingshotting round Earth to achieve the velocity it wants for its journey to discover the Trojan asteroids.
As Lucy passes over Earth tonight, will probably be touring over 33,000 miles per hour (53,100 km/hr). Lucy will spend about 20 minutes touring by way of Earth’s shadow and will turn out to be seen as soon as it emerges on the opposite facet.
At its nearest strategy tonight, Lucy could also be seen to observers with a telescope in western Africa or jap South America. It will probably be more durable for observers within the jap U.S. to see the probe as a result of we will probably be on the darkish facet of Lucy’s photo voltaic panels, whereas these on the opposite facet of the spacecraft will profit from gentle glinting off the surfaces. The Virtual Telescope Project 2.0 can be internet hosting a reside feed (obtainable above) of the Lucy probe because it makes its swing by our world.
Earlier this week, the European Space Agency’s BepiColombo spacecraft flew by Mercury for the fifth time, because the company plans for the spacecraft’s arrival within the planet’s orbit in November 2026. This November, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe made its closing flyby of Venus, utilizing our next-door-neighbor’s gravity to fling itself to the floor of our star. Parker’s closest strategy of the Sun is about to happen on Christmas Eve.
This is definitely Lucy’s second gravity help of Earth; its first occurred in October 2022 and enabled the spacecraft to swing by the small asteroid Dinkinesh. The upcoming gravity help will put Lucy right into a six-year orbit that can ship the spacecraft by way of the asteroid belt and to the Trojan asteroids, with a primary encounter anticipated in 2027. The gravity help will enhance Lucy’s velocity with respect to the Sun by over 16,000 miles per hour (25,750 kilometers per hour).
Lucy’s subsequent cease would be the essential belt asteroid Donaldjohanson, which the spacecraft will go on April 20, 2025. After that, it’s to infinity—erm, the asteroid belt—and past.
