Lucy probe snaps 'cosmic bowling pin' asteroid in space mission
The Lucy probe captured an image of the asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson. NASA released photos of this object, which is described as a "cosmic bowling pin" due to its shape. "These early images of Donaldjohanson are again showing the tremendous capabilities of the Lucy spacecraft as an engine of discovery," said one of the researchers.
The object was registered on April 20. According to NASA, the Lucy probe was located about 600 miles from the asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson. The probe transmitted an image of this object back to Earth. NASA stated in a press release that the unusual shape of the narrow "neck" connecting the two main parts was a surprise.
"Asteroid Donaldjohanson has strikingly complicated geology. As we study the complex structures in detail, they will reveal important information about the building blocks and collisional processes that formed the planets in our solar system," said Hal Levison, the principal investigator of the Lucy mission from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
The probe recorded the asteroid. Now it's heading towards Jupiter
Donaldjohanson is 5 miles long and 2 miles wide at its widest point. In the first high-resolution photos, the entire object is not visible because it is too large relative to the camera's field of view. Transmitting all the data from this flyby will take about a week. A complete set of data will provide a fuller picture of the asteroid's shape.
For the Lucy probe, this is not the first encounter with such an object. It previously recorded the asteroid Dinkinesh. Donaldjohanson is not the main research target of the mission. The Lucy probe will spend the rest of 2025 traveling through the main asteroid belt. In August 2027, it will reach its first primary target – Jupiter's Trojan asteroid, Eurybates.
"These early images of Donaldjohanson are again showing the tremendous capabilities of the Lucy spacecraft as an engine of discovery. The potential to really open a new window into the history of our solar system when Lucy gets to the Trojan asteroids is immense," believes Tom Statler, Lucy program scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C.
