Lucy will continue to image the asteroid over the next months as part of its optical navigation program, which uses the asteroids apparent position versus the star background to identify the relative position of Lucy and Dinkinesh to ensure a precise flyby. Dinkinesh will stay an unsolved point of light during the long technique and wont begin to reveal surface area detail until the day of the encounter.
Outstanding Observations and Equipment
The brightest star in this field of view is HD 34258, a 7.6 magnitude star in the constellation Auriga that is too dim to be seen by the naked eye from Earth. At this range, Dinkinesh is just 19 magnitude, about 150,000 times fainter than that star. Celestial north is to the right of the frame, which is about 74,500 miles across (120,000 km). The observations were made by Lucys high-resolution cam, the LLORRI instrument– brief for Lucy LOng Range Reconnaissance Imager– offered by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.
Team and Institutional Involvement
Lucys primary detective, Hal Levison, is based out of the Boulder, Colorado, branch of Southwest Research Institute, headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. Lucy is the 13th objective in NASAs Discovery Program.
NASAs Lucy spacecraft has actually recorded its initial images of the main belt asteroid, Dinkinesh, the very first of 10 asteroids Lucy will study over a 12-year period. While presently 14 million miles away, Lucy will approach within 265 miles of Dinkinesh on November 1, 2023, using this close encounter to check its systems. (Artists idea of Lucy spacecraft at Trojan asteroid.) Credit: NASA
NASAs Lucy spacecraft provides its first glance of asteroid Dinkinesh. Over a span of 2 months, Lucy will get closer, checking its systems before a close flyby on November 1, 2023.
The little dot moving versus the background of stars is the first view from NASAs Lucy spacecraft of the primary belt asteroid Dinkinesh, the first of 10 asteroids that the spacecraft will visit on its 12-year voyage of discovery. Lucy captured these two images (listed below) on September 2 and 5, 2023.
NASAs Lucy spacecraft captured these images of asteroid Dinkinesh on September 2 and 5, 2023. Credit: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/ Johns Hopkins APL
Technique and Mission Objectives
Lucy took these images while it was 14 million miles (23 million km) far from the asteroid, which is only about a half-mile broad (1 km). Over the next two months, Lucy will continue towards Dinkinesh until its closest technique of 265 miles (425 km) on November 1, 2023. The Lucy team will utilize this encounter as a chance to evaluate out spacecraft systems and procedures, focusing on the spacecrafts terminal tracking system, created to keep the asteroid within the instruments fields of view as the spacecraft flies by at 10,000 miles per hour (4.5 km/s).
The observations were made by Lucys high-resolution camera, the LLORRI instrument– short for Lucy LOng Range Reconnaissance Imager– provided by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.
NASAs Lucy spacecraft has actually recorded its preliminary images of the main belt asteroid, Dinkinesh, the first of 10 asteroids Lucy will study over a 12-year duration. The little dot moving versus the background of stars is the first view from NASAs Lucy spacecraft of the primary belt asteroid Dinkinesh, the first of 10 asteroids that the spacecraft will go to on its 12-year trip of discovery. Lucy took these images while it was 14 million miles (23 million km) away from the asteroid, which is just about a half-mile large (1 km). The Lucy team will utilize this encounter as an opportunity to evaluate out spacecraft systems and treatments, focusing on the spacecrafts terminal tracking system, created to keep the asteroid within the instruments fields of view as the spacecraft flies by at 10,000 miles per hour (4.5 km/s).