The asteroid hunting spacecraft Lucy will make its 2nd somberness assist of Earth today , swing by our pale downhearted dot on its way to a group of asteroid recognise as the Trojans .
Lucy is a spacecraft on a12 - class journeyinto thedistant solar system , where it will investigate agroup of asteroidsto considerably understand the origins of the outer planets and the nativity of the solar system . But Lucy require a slight push to get there , and its coming flyby is set to come about tonight around 11:15 p.m. Eastern Time , harmonize to to a NASAstatement .
It is a common assumption that once a missionary post launches , it is gone , never to be see around these parts again . That is often untrue — spacecraft do n’t carry much fuel and often leverage the gravitational pull of solar system objects to hasten their travel to ( relatively ) faraway parts of the macrocosm . Tonight , Lucy will do exactly that , slingshotting around Earth to gain the speed it needs for its journey to explore the Trojan asteroid .
A visualization of the Lucy spacecraft, with Earth in background at right.Illustration: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio - Walt Feimer, Jenny McElligott, Jonathan North, Krystofer Kim, Kel Elkins, Dan Gallagher, Ernie Wright, Katherine Kretke, Aaron E. Lepsch
As Lucy eliminate over Earth tonight , it will be traveling over 33,000 mile per hr ( 53,100 klick / hour ) . Lucy will expend about 20 minute go through Earth ’s shadow and may become seeable once it come out on the other side .
At its nearest plan of attack tonight , Lucy may be visible to observers with a scope in westerly Africa or eastern South America . It will be heavy for commentator in the eastern U.S. to see the investigation because we will be on the colored side of Lucy ’s solar panels , while those on the other side of the ballistic capsule will benefit from light glinting off the aerofoil . The Virtual Telescope Project 2.0 is also hosting alive feed(available above ) of the Lucy probe as it makes its golf shot by our world .
Earlier this week , the European Space Agency ’s BepiColombo spacecraft flew by Mercury for thefifth meter , as the office plans for the ballistic capsule ’s arrival in the satellite ’s orbit in November 2026 . This November , NASA ’s Parker Solar Probe made its last flyby of Venus , using our next - door - neighbour ’s gravity to put away itself to the Earth’s surface of our star . Parker’sclosest approachof the Sun is set to occur on Christmas Eve .
A graphic showing Lucy’s second Earth gravity assist. Image: NASA
This is actually Lucy ’s 2d gravity assist of Earth ; its first occurred in October 2022 and enabled the spacecraft to swing over by thesmall asteroid Dinkinesh . The upcoming sobriety aid will put Lucy into a six - class orbit that will beam the spacecraft through the asteroid belted ammunition and to the Trojan asteroid , with a first encounter expected in 2027 . The gravity assistance will increase Lucy ’s speed with regard to the Sun by over 16,000 knot per hour ( 25,750 kilometre per hour ) .
Lucy ’s next blockage will be the main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson , which the spacecraft will glide by on April 20 , 2025 . After that , it ’s to infinity — erm , the asteroid knock — and beyond .
aerospace technologyasteroidsNASA
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