NASA’s Lucy spacecraft is the first mission to the Trojan asteroids near Jupiter. Also known as Discovery 13, it is part of the Discovery Missions that aim to explore the Solar System. Now, NASA has discovered that one of the Trojan asteroids, that the spacecraft will be paying a visit to, has a small satellite.
The team found that the Trojan asteroid Eurybates has a small satellite in stow. The discovery was made using images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3. It was initially observed by the telescope in 2018 but was first noticed by a Lucy team member in November 2019. The additional observation opportunity won’t affect the design or schedule of the mission.
Lucy will be visiting not just 7 asteroids, but 8! Eurybates has a satellite! https://t.co/SbDeJ39eIa pic.twitter.com/yLObclQxtR
— NASA’s Lucy Mission (@NASALucy2Trojan) January 9, 2020
While Lucy is set to launch in 2021, it won’t be until 2027 that the spacecraft performs the fly-by manoeuvre about the Trojan asteroid. The spacecraft will fly-by six asteroids, one asteroid in the main belt and six Trojan asteroids near Jupiter, over a period of 12 years. Trojan asteroids serve as a window in early days of the stellar space as they are remnants of the primordial material that formed the outer planets of the Solar System.
Orbiting the Sun in two stable orbits, these fossils of planetary formation are located inside and outside the Jupiter’s orbit. The Lucy mission will help scientists understand the origins and the evolution of the solar system just like the first fossilized human ancestor it was named after shed light on the genesis of human beings.
The collisional satellite is the largest member of the sole Trojan collisional family of about 100 asteroids that were created from the same collision. Thomas Statler, a Lucy program Scientist explained: “There are only a handful of known Trojan asteroids with satellites, and the presence of a satellite is particularly interesting for Eurybates.”
Image Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptual Image Lab/Adriana Gutierrez
