Thousands of these dark reddish or gray rocks have been detected, with many thousands more likely lurking in the two clusters. Lucy aims to sweep past seven of the countless Trojan asteroids that precede and trail Jupiter in the giant gas planet’s path around the sun. The much longer $981 million Lucy mission - the first to Jupiter’s so-called Trojan entourage - is targeting an unprecedented eight asteroids.
#Lucy in the sky with diamonds full#
If all goes well, the high-speed smashup will occur next fall just 7 million miles (11 million kilometers) away, within full view of ground telescopes. 24 - promises to be a dramatic exercise in planetary defense. The asteroid-smacking Dart spacecraft - set to launch Nov. All it takes is looking at the moon and the impact craters created by asteroids and meteorites to realize the threat, Zurbuchen said. Growing interest: Advances in tech and design are behind this flurry of asteroid missions, as well as the growing interest in asteroids and the danger they pose to Earth. The United Arab Emirates is also planning an asteroid stop in the coming years. “They’re the fossils of planet formation.”Ĭhina and Russia are teaming up for an asteroid mission later this decade. There’s nothing better for understanding how our solar system formed 4.6 billion years ago, said Lucy’s principal scientist, Hal Levison of Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. “Each one of those asteroids we’re visiting tells our story … the story of us, the story of the solar system,” said NASA’s chief of science missions, Thomas Zurbuchen.
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