Prior to gravity assistance, NASA's Lucy spacecraft takes pictures of the Earth and Moon

Prior to gravity assistance, NASA's Lucy spacecraft takes pictures of the Earth and Moon

Prior to gravity assistance, NASA's Lucy spacecraft takes pictures of the Earth and Moon

As part of a gravity assist to gain some of the orbital energy it needs to travel to this never-before-visited population of asteroids, a NASA spacecraft named Lucy, the first mission to the Jupiter Trojan asteroids, has captured an exquisite image of Earth, along with a picture of the Earth and Moon. At a distance of 620,000 kilometres, NASA's Lucy probe acquired this photograph of Earth. According to a statement from the US space agency, the upper left of the image shows Hadar, Ethiopia, the location of the 3.2 million-year-old human progenitor fossil for which the spacecraft was named.

The Jupiter Trojan asteroids are an old population of asteroid "fossils" that orbit the Sun at the same distance as Jupiter. Lucy is the first mission to investigate them. The Lucy spacecraft's route includes three Earth gravity aids to help it accelerate toward these mysterious asteroids in order to approach them from Earth. The picture was captured using the Terminal Tracking Camera (T2CAM) system on Lucy, a set of two identical cameras that are in charge of keeping track of asteroids during high-speed collisions.

Malin Space Science Systems developed, produced, and tested the T2CAM system; Lockheed Martin installed and managed the T2CAMs aboard the Lucy mission. A photo of the Earth and Moon was also taken by the Lucy spacecraft at a distance of 1.4 million kilometres. The speed Lucy needs to get to the Trojan asteroids—small rocks that orbit the Sun at the same distance as Jupiter—is provided by these Earth flybys. In search of hints to better comprehend the creation of the solar system, Lucy will pass by a record-breaking number of asteroids over its 12-year voyage. It will also assess their diversity.

(source : IANS)

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