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💎 Lucy

12-year mission to explore Jupiter's Trojan asteroids — first spacecraft to study these primitive bodies.

🏢 NASA·🎯 Trojan Asteroids·📅 Launched 2021-10-16·🛸 Cruise
🕐 days h m s in space
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Fossil Hunting in Space

Named after the famous hominin fossil, Lucy is on a 12-year journey to explore Jupiter's Trojan asteroids — ancient bodies trapped at the L4 and L5 Lagrange points. These primitive asteroids are thought to be remnants of the material that formed the outer planets.

A Complex Trajectory

Lucy will visit eight asteroids across three separate Trojan swarms. In November 2023, it made a bonus flyby of main-belt asteroid Dinkinesh, discovering it was a contact binary with its own moonlet.

Mission Timeline

2021-10-16
Launch on Atlas V
2023-11-01
Flyby of Dinkinesh — discovered moonlet
2025-04-20
Flyby of Donaldjohanson
2027-08
First L4 Trojan encounters
2033-03
L5 Trojan encounter (Patroclus-Menoetius)

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