Lucy, a space mission to find the Trojan meteorite

Her name is Lucy. The skeleton, discovered in Ethiopia in 1974, is about 3 million years old and famous astrolopithecus and provided ample information about the species’ prenatal hominids. Homo. By taking Lucy’s name for its new mission, NASA hopes the study, to be taken from the Kennedy Space Center (Florida) on Saturday, October 16, will bring new knowledge about other origins. The Solar System ..

They are called Hector, Axis, Priam, Patroclus … Named after the characters Iliad, These are called “Trojan” asteroids. In the thousands, they are divided into two groups located at two specific locations in Jupiter’s orbit, the lockrange points L4 and L5. The laws of gravity are that in these regions representing the vertices of the two equilateral triangles that are the Sun-Jupiter section, the gravitational pull of our star and the giant planet is in equilibrium. So they are sanctuaries of stability – or traps if one sees things too blurry. L4 precedes Jupiter 60 in its revolution around the Sun, while L5 follows it 60.

The real Odyssey

Many space missions have already targeted asteroids, but no one has visited the Trojans, so Lucy will be the best first. Upon departure, this 1.5 ton engine (including 771 kg of fuel) will launch a real Odyssey into the solar system. First, and twice – in 2022 and 2024 – it will have an encounter with Earth to benefit from gravity from our planet, which will send it to L4. During this voyage, on April 20, 2025, he will meet a representative of the main asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter, to pay homage to the great paleontologist Donald Johansson … the American paleontrologist who directed the work of the discovery of Australopithecus Lucy. This asteroid will have the opportunity to perform a costume rehearsal for the study, which includes three instruments: a camera with the highest resolution and two spectrometers to determine the chemical composition of the passing stars.

Ask more Is Mars an unreal epic?

Lucy arrived at L4 in 2027, and on August 12 of that year, her first Trojan, flying over Euripat, a sixty-kilometer-diameter asteroid with two characteristics: the first belongs to the Trojan family, the catastrophic collision, and the second, equipped with a small satellite called Quetta. From September 2027 to November 2028, Lucy will visit the other three asteroids, Polymel, Lucas and Oros. Then, two of its largest solar panels with a diameter of more than 7 meters will move towards the probe, the L5.

You should read 43.98% of this article. The rest is for subscribers only.