The Lucy mission has wrapped up refining the data gathered from its April 20 encounter with asteroid Donaldjohanson in the main asteroid belt. The spacecraft’s Long Range Reconnaissance Imager captured a peanut-shaped asteroid, revealing features as small as 130 feet across.
Although the Sun’s position reduced the contrast, the close visit provides valuable insights into the asteroid’s geology and surface details. Hal Levison, Lucy’s principal investigator, notes that Donaldjohanson likely formed from a cosmic collision between two smaller objects around 150 million years ago.
This encounter is part of “dress rehearsal” for Lucy’s mission to explore Jupiter Trojan asteroids, which began with its flyby of asteroid Dinkinesh in November 2023. The spacecraft will next explore the Jupiter Trojan asteroids in earnest starting with Eurybates and its massive satellite Queta, scheduled for August 2027.
Source: https://gizmodo.com/nasa-reveals-first-ever-full-image-of-peanut-shaped-asteroid-donaldjohanson-2000623824