NASA's Lucy spacecraft at the Trojan asteroids
NASA's Lucy spacecraft at the Trojan asteroids
With the Lucy mission, asteroids of the 'Jovian Trojans' family will be explored for the first time. These are planetoids that have accumulated at two points in front of and behind the gas giant, where the gravity of Jupiter and the Sun cancel each other out – referred to as Lagrange points. After launching on 16 October 2021, NASA's spacecraft will arrive at the L4 point along Jupiter’s orbit in 2027 and observe five Trojan asteroids in succession at close range until 2028, as anticipated in this artist's impression. After a return to the inner Solar System, Lucy will finally study a system of two binary asteroids at the L5 point in 2033.
