NASA spacecraft gets first photos of Asteroid Donaldjohansen on way to exploring even bigger space prize

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft has got a new target in its sights. New photos have emerged of a small asteroid named Donaldjohanson. Images show the perceived motion of the asteroid. The Lucy spacecraft will pass within 596 miles of the 2-mile-wide asteroid on April 20. It will be the second asteroid encounter for the Lucy spacecraft.In the first image, another dim asteroid can be seen in the lower right section of the frame.RARE 7-PLANET PARADE HAPPENS THIS WEEK. HERE’S HOW YOU CAN SEE ITThe spacecraft has valued experience as it successfully observed the tiny main belt asteroid Dinkinesh and its contact binary moon, Selam, in November 2023. NASA says this second asteroid encounter for Lucy “will serve as a dress-rehearsal for the spacecraft’s main targets, the never-before-explored Jupiter Trojan asteroids.”NASA says the asteroid is named in honor of anthropologist Donald Johanson, who discovered the fossilized skeleton — called “Lucy” — of a human ancestor. The Lucy mission is named for the fossil, NASA added.The Donaldjohanson asteroid currently stands at a distance of 45 million miles away. Although the images are dim, the asteroid is just bright enough to stand out. Lucy will continue to monitor Donaldjohanson over the next two months as part of the optical navigation program, which uses the asteroid’s apparent position against the star background to ensure an accurate flyby.