The C-types are found mostly in the outer parts of the Main Belt of asteroids, between Mars and Jupiter.Īll of the Trojans are thought to be abundant in dark carbon compounds.īelow an insulating blanket of dust, they are probably rich in water and other volatile substances, dating back to the first days of the solar system. The dark-red P- and D-type Trojans resemble those found in the Kuiper Belt of icy bodies that extends beyond the orbit of Neptune. They will give us our first close-up view of all three major types of bodies in the swarms - known as C-, P- and D-types of asteroids. Lucy's complex path will take it to both clusters of Trojans that are in orbit around the gas giant, at the L4 and L5 points. This will include a main belt asteroid, that orbits between Mars and Jupiter, and seven Trojans stuck in a gravitational lock between Jupiter and the Sun.įour of which are members of 'two-for-the-price-of-one' binary systems. Lucy launched in October 2021 and, with boosts from Earth's gravity, will complete a 12-year journey to eight different asteroids.
The vast majority of the asteroid visits will happen in 20, with a final asteroid flyby scheduled to happen in March 2033. Meanwhile, the first flyby of a Trojan asteroid will not happen for another two years, when Lucy gets closer to Jupiter in August 2027. The main belt is roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars, closer than the Trojan asteroids, which share Jupiter's orbit. Its first asteroid visit will be in April 2025, when it will take a look at the main-belt asteroid Donaldjohanson. It will fly around the Earth twice to adjust its trajectory and get it on its way to the outer parts of the solar system. The $981 million (£715 million) space probe launched on Octoand has nearly completed one orbit around Earth – the first stage of its journey.
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This may not happen until NASA's Lucy space probe approaches the asteroid in 2027.ĭuring its mission, Lucy will visit one main belt asteroid and seven Trojan asteroids, plus two of the Trojan asteroids' moons. Using the occultation data, the team were able to estimate the size of the moon (roughly 3 miles or 5 km in diameter), and that of Polymele (17 miles or 27 km along its widest axis).įollowing planetary naming conventions, the satellite will not be given an official name until the team can determine its orbit. These larger asteroids pose a much greater threat if they were to impact, and they can be detected much farther away from Earth, because they're simply much brighter than the small ones.Ĭhodas says NASA's asteroid surveys are getting better all the time, and the agency now expects to find asteroids the size of 2020 SW a few days before they come near Earth.'Those two observers detected an object around 200 km (about 124 miles) away from Polymele. In 2005, Congress assigned NASA the goal of finding 90 percent of the near-Earth asteroids that are about 140 meters or larger in size. The space agency says they believe there are over 100 million small asteroids like 2020 SW, but they are hard to discover unless they get very close to Earth. He says, "In fact, asteroids of this size impact our atmosphere at an average rate of about once every year or two."Īfter passing the Earth, the asteroid will continue its journey around the Sun, not returning to Earth's vicinity until 2041, when NASA says it will make a much more distant flyby. NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) - part of the JPL - then did follow-up observations and confirmed its orbital trajectory, ruling out any chance of impact.ĬNEOS director Paul Chodas says an object this size, this close to earth, is not uncommon. NASA Plans to Land First Woman on the Moon in 2024
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