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New discovery from NASA/8 kilometer asteroid found by spacecraft

2025-04-30 22:50:00, Kuriozitete CNA

New discovery from NASA/8 kilometer asteroid found by spacecraft

NASA's Lucy spacecraft made a successful flyby of the second-most important asteroid on its list over the weekend, sending back images demonstrating its strange shape, Science Alert reports.

The asteroid Donaldjohanson, named after the anthropologist who discovered Lucy, the most famous hominid fossil, is described by NASA as an elongated double-contact system, two celestial bodies that have merged together, with ridges on its narrow neck.

"The asteroid Donaldjohanson has a surprisingly complex geology," said planetary scientist Hal Levison, principal investigator of the Lucy mission.

The images confirmed that it is an asteroid formed by the collision and merger of two smaller celestial bodies.

"As we study its complex structures in detail, important information will be revealed about the building blocks and collision processes that formed the planets of our solar system," he stressed.

New discovery from NASA/8 kilometer asteroid found by spacecraft

Donaldjohanson is somewhat larger than previously thought, about 8 kilometers long and 3.5 kilometers wide at its widest point.

Lucy approached Donaldjohanson about 960 kilometers on Easter Sunday, April 20, taking images every two seconds.

Researchers believe Lucy's two encounters in the main asteroid belt, which lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, are just warm-ups for the main part of the mission, which cost NASA $989 million, a detailed study of asteroids known as Jupiter Trojans.

No spacecraft has ever approached such an asteroid. /CNA





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