Lucy's approach to asteroid Donaldjohanson
This series of optical navigation images, acquired by the L'LORRI camera system on NASA's Lucy spacecraft, shows asteroid Donaldjohanson gradually brightening over 39 days in February and March 2025 as the spacecraft approaches the target asteroid. Lucy will pass Donaldjohanson on 20 April 2025, at a distance of 960 kilometres. In this time-lapse sequence, consecutive optical navigation images are superimposed with a field of view of 0.3 degrees. Lucy begins at a distance of over 72 million kilometres from the asteroid and ends only 25 million kilometres away. The asteroid appears to move in an arc relative to the background stars as the spacecraft – which was initially behind Donaldjohanson in its orbit around the Sun – catches up with and temporarily overtakes the asteroid.
Lucy's approach to asteroid Donaldjohanson
Lucy's approach to asteroid Donaldjohanson
This series of optical navigation images, acquired by the L'LORRI camera system on NASA's Lucy spacecraft, shows asteroid Donaldjohanson gradually brightening over 39 days in February and March 2025 as the spacecraft approaches the target asteroid. Lucy will pass Donaldjohanson on 20 April 2025, at a distance of 960 kilometres. In this time-lapse sequence, consecutive optical navigation images are superimposed with a field of view of 0.3 degrees. Lucy begins at a distance of over 72 million kilometres from the asteroid and ends only 25 million kilometres away. The asteroid appears to move in an arc relative to the background stars as the spacecraft – which was initially behind Donaldjohanson in its orbit around the Sun – catches up with and temporarily overtakes the asteroid.
Credit:
NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL
Duration:00:00:38