NASA Reveals Detailed Image of Unusually Shaped Asteroid

Written by Fabio Lucas Carvalho

Published on 23/04/2025 at 08:07

Updated on 23/04/2025 at 08:10

A sonda Lucy da NASA capturou este close do asteroide Donaldjohanson a uma distância de cerca de 1.067 km. (NASA / Goddard / SwRI / JHUAPL / NOIRLab)

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NASA Reveals Unprecedented And Highly Detailed Image Of An Asteroid With A Shape Considered Uncommon By Astronomers. The Irregular Structure Filled With Protrusions Surprised Researchers

NASA Recently Released An Impressive Image Of The Asteroid Donaldjohanson, Captured By The Lucy Spacecraft. The Object, Located In The Asteroid Belt Between Mars And Jupiter, Has A Peculiar Structure.

It Is A Contact Binary, Formed By The Collision Of Two Smaller Celestial Bodies, Which Gives The Asteroid An Appearance That Resembles Two Joined Ice Cream Cones.

Mission Lucy Approaches Less Than A Thousand Kilometers

The Record Was Made On April 20, When The Lucy Spacecraft Came Within About 960 Kilometers Of The Asteroid.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

Name In Honor Of The Discovery Of Lucy

The Asteroid Was Named In Honor Of The Anthropologist Who Discovered The Fossils Of Lucy, An Important Ancestor Of Humanity.

Now, It Also Integrates The Trajectory Of The Spacecraft That Carries The Same Name. For Scientists, The Uncommon Shape Of Donaldjohanson May Help To Better Understand The Collision Processes That Gave Rise To The Planets Of The Solar System.

Encounter Marks A New Stage Of The Mission

This Encounter Took Place Three And A Half Years After The Launch Of The Mission And 17 Months After The Lucy Spacecraft Visited Its First Target, The Asteroid Dinkinesh, And Its Mini-Moon, Selam.

Like Donaldjohanson, Selam Is Also A Contact Binary. Researchers Consider These Two Encounters As Warm-Ups Before The Main Goal Of The Mission: To Explore The So-Called Trojan Asteroids Of Jupiter.

The Trojan Asteroids Are Trapped In Specific Points In Jupiter’s Orbit Due To The Planet’s Gravity. No Spacecraft Has Ever Approached These Objects.

The Lucy Mission, With An Estimated Cost Of US$ 989 Million, Is Expected To Change That. According To NASA, The Spacecraft Is Continuing Its Journey Through The Main Asteroid Belt And Is Expected To Reach Its First Trojan, Named Eurybates, In August 2027. Four More Encounters With Trojans Are Planned By 2033.

In The Coming Weeks, Scientists Will Analyze The Images Taken By Lucy. The Spacecraft Is Equipped With Black And White Imaging Sensors, Color Imaging, Infrared Spectrometer, And Thermal Infrared. This Data May Provide New Clues About The Origin Of Celestial Bodies And The History Of The Solar System.

NASA Reveals Detailed Image of Unusually Shaped Asteroid

NASA Reveals Unprecedented And Highly Detailed Image Of An Asteroid With A Shape Considered Uncommon By Astronomers. The Irregular Structure Filled With Protrusions Surprised Researchers

Mission Lucy Approaches Less Than A Thousand Kilometers

Name In Honor Of The Discovery Of Lucy

Encounter Marks A New Stage Of The Mission

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NASA Reveals Detailed Image of Unusually Shaped Asteroid

NASA Reveals Unprecedented And Highly Detailed Image Of An Asteroid With A Shape Considered Uncommon By Astronomers. The Irregular Structure Filled With Protrusions Surprised Researchers

Mission Lucy Approaches Less Than A Thousand Kilometers

Name In Honor Of The Discovery Of Lucy

Encounter Marks A New Stage Of The Mission

While an average building in London or New York takes three years to be completed, in China a 26-story tower went up in five days with about 100 workers, and the global modular construction market already moves US$ 95 billion per year.

A Chinese factory in Guangdong is assembling a humanoid robot every 30 minutes while Tesla, Figure, and Boston Dynamics still struggle to deliver 10 thousand per year.

Australia installs giant concrete structures on the seabed 800 meters from the shore to create an ocean intake for desalination that will draw in saltwater and produce 30 million liters of drinking water per day.

Secret chamber sealed 4,500 years ago found in the Pyramid of Khufu, and Hawass announces its opening to the world in 2026

A public school student single-handedly created a machine capable of treating water for up to 50 people using only solar energy. It was awarded third place at one of the most important science fairs in the world.

Germany installed vertical solar panels on a lake in Bavaria, and the result broke conventional logic: instead of producing energy at midday peak, the plant generates more early in the morning and in the evening, exactly when families turn on appliances and factories are in full swing.

While communities suffer from water scarcity and the advancing desert, women in Morocco use nets high up in the mountains to trap fog droplets, fill reservoirs, and transport drinking water through more than 10 km of piping.

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Panamax ship arrives at the Port of Salvador and marks an unprecedented operation at Brazil’s first port after technical studies, new equipment, and expansion of Bahia’s logistical capacity.

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