NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Spots Jupiter’s Trojan Asteroids for the First Time
NASA’s Lucy mission to study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids has captured pictures of asteroids.
The Lucy spacecraft used its L’LORRI (Lucy Long Range Reconnaissance Imager) camera to capture the first views of the Jupiter Trojan asteroid between March 25 and March 27.
Lucy Spacecraft
- Be aware that the Lucy spacecraft was launched on October 26, 2021, from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida with an Atlas V rocket.
- In its journey of almost a year, it has taken stunning pictures of the Earth and the Moon, after traveling about 620,000 km.
- Between March 25 and March 27, the Lucy satellite took pictures of four of Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids: Eurybates, Polymele, Leucus, and Orus, with its highest resolution imager, L’LORRI.
Trojan Asteroids:
- Asteroids that share their orbit with a planet, but which lie at the leading (L4) and trailing (L5) Lagrangian points, are known as Trojan asteroids.
- Although Trojan asteroids have been discovered around Mars and Neptune and even Earth, asteroids that share an orbit with Jupiter are usually called ‘Trojan asteroids’.
- There are currently over 4,800 known Trojan asteroids associated with Jupiter.
Source – Indian Express
