By Isaac Schultz Published February 26, 2025 | Comments (0) | An artist's concept of the the Lucy spacecraft flying past the Trojan asteroids Patroclus and Menoetius. Illustration: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptual Image Lab/Adriana Gutierrez The Lucy spacecraft just got its first good look at the main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson as the NASA mission prepares to explore the Trojan asteroids as far out as Jupiter. Donaldjohanson is not a Trojan asteroid, but is located in a convenient position for Lucy to swing by before continuing on to its main targets. Donaldjohansonnamed for the anthropologist who discovered the fossilized hominid Lucy in 1974is a small main belt asteroid at roughly 3 miles (4 kilometers) in diameter. Newly released NASA images show the asteroid as a faint smudge of light in two viewscaptured by Lucys LOng Range Reconnaissance Imager (or LLORRI, for short). The images (below) show Donaldjohanson as it appeared 45 million miles (70 million kilometers) from Lucy. But the spacecraft will close that distance by April 20, 2025, when it is slated to make a close flyby of Donaldjohanson. During the flyby, Lucy will pass within 596 miles (960 kilometers) of the asteroid. Asteroid Donaldjohanson (highlighted in the square at right) as seen by Lucy. Image: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL Lucy launched in October 2021 and, very early in the mission, observed the asteroid Dinkinesh and its tiny moon. Late last year, the spacecraft slingshotted around Earthits second gravity assist of our worldas it prepared to speed off to Donaldjohanson. The gravity assist increased Lucys speed with respect to the Sun by over 16,000 miles per hour (25,750 kilometers per hour).Though Donaldjohanson is just a preamble to Lucys main event, the asteroid is compelling in its own right. Donaldjohanson is thought to be a piece of debris from a massive collision about 130 million years ago, a collision that created the Erigone family of asteroids, according to the Lucy mission site. A zoomed-in view of asteroid Donaldjohanson. Image: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL/Gizmodo Lucy will continue to image Donaldjohanson over the next two months as part of the missions optical navigation program. Donaldjohanson will continue to appear as an unresolved faint smudge until the April 20 flyby.The first Trojan asteroid on Lucys to-see list is Eurybates, which is much larger than Donaldjohansonabout 40 miles (64 kilometers) across. The Eurybates flyby will help researchers understand how the Trojan asteroids ended up mostly together in front of Jupiter in its orbit of the Sun, and why the Trojans have the compositions that they do. The Eurybates flyby will also let Lucy spot Queta, Eurybates puny satellite. The flyby will take place on August 12, 2027. Lucy will perform flybys of a troop of Trojans in the coming years, with the final flyby (of Patroclus and Menoetius, the two asteroids featured in the top image) in 2033. But thereafter, Lucy will stay in a stable orbit and should continue flying through the Trojans for years to come.Daily NewsletterYou May Also Like By Adam Kovac Published February 26, 2025 By Isaac Schultz Published February 26, 2025 By Isaac Schultz Published February 24, 2025 Adam Kovac and George Dvorsky Published February 21, 2025 By Isaac Schultz Published February 20, 2025 By Adam Kovac Published February 19, 2025