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Lucy will take black-and-white and color images and use a diamond beam splitter to shine far-infrared light at the asteroids to measure their temperatures and map their surfaces. It will also collect other measurements as you fly. This data could help scientists understand how planets might have formed.

Sarah Dodson-RobinsonLucy, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Delaware, says she can offer a precise timeline. When planets originally formed, but where.

“If you can pinpoint when the Trojan asteroids formed, you’ll know when Jupiter formed and you’ll be able to say, ‘Where did Jupiter go in the solar system?’ “You can start asking questions like this,” he says. “Because it wasn’t always where it is now. It has been circulated.”

And to determine the ages of the asteroids, the spacecraft will look for surface craters that may be no larger than a football field.

“[The Trojans] “Dodson-Robinson has not experienced as many collisions and refractions as some of the other asteroids closer to us.” “We’re potentially looking at some of these asteroids as they were shortly after they formed.”

On her 4 billion-mile journey, Lucy will receive three gravitational aids from Earth that involve using the force of gravity to change the spacecraft’s trajectory without depleting its resources. Coralie ManThe vice president of the navigation team for the Lucy mission says each thrust will increase the speed of the spacecraft from 200 miles per hour to over 11,000 mph.

“Without this Earth gravity assist, Lucy would have taken five times the amount of fuel – or three metric tons – to reach her target, which would have made the mission impossible,” the man said during an engineering media briefing, also held on Oct.

Lucy’s mission is scheduled to end in 2033, but some NASA officials are already confident that the spacecraft will last much longer. “There will be enough fuel left on board,” the man said. “After the last encounter with binary asteroids, as long as the spacecraft is healthy, we plan to offer NASA an extended mission to discover more Trojans.”