All about Lucy, NASA’s mission to Jupiter

Lucy, the new mission of NASA, the US space agency, is due to take off on October 16. The journey will be long: for twelve years, this space probe will explore the Trojan asteroids, which have never been studied closely.

Asteroids are the remnants of the formation of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago. These are small rocky objects orbiting the Sun. Since there are thousands of them, Lucy will only be interested in the so-called “Trojan” asteroids, which take their name from the fighters of the Trojan War.

These have the particularity of being in the same orbit, that is to say of following the same trajectory, as the planet Jupiter. They are about 7,000 to be known to researchers. They are divided into two “clouds”, one preceding Jupiter, the other following it. The aim of the mission is to study their geology and their composition.

“Whatever Lucy discovers, it will give us essential clues as to how our solar system was formed,” said Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s planetary science division. The ultimate goal would be to validate or refute the “Nice model”, one of the most important theories on the subject. She estimates that the giant planets, including Jupiter, would have migrated billions of years ago from a compact configuration to their current positions.

A six-year journey

The mission will begin with a six-year journey, the time it takes for Lucy to reach Jupiter’s orbit (according to the trajectory in green in the image below). Most of her observations will therefore take place between 2027 and 2033. Lucy will start by gaining the Lagrange L4 point, the position of a first group of Trojan asteroids. It will fly over the asteroids Oros, Leucos, Polymèle and Eurybate. Then, it will reach point L5, the second group of asteroids, where it will fly over Patroclus and Ménétios.

These asteroids, “although they are located in a very confined area of ​​space, are very different from each other,” Hal Levison, principal investigator of the mission, explained at a press conference.

To join them, Lucy will be equipped with two large solar panels. It is also the first vessel of this type to venture so far from the Sun. NASA has a budget of $ 981 million to ensure the smooth running of the mission.

The name “Lucy” refers to the Australopithecus fossil discovered in Ethiopia in 1974. Studying it has shed light on the evolution of humanity, Nasa today wishing to shed light on the evolution of the solar system.

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