After 5 Years And 2.2 Billion Miles, NASA's Lucy Spacecraft Becomes First To Reach Jupiter Trojan Asteroids

ETV Bharat / technology

After 5 Years And 2.2 Billion Miles, NASA's Lucy Spacecraft Becomes First To Reach Jupiter Trojan Asteroids

Hyderabad: NASA's Lucy spacecraft has become the first man-made object to reach the Jupiter Trojan asteroids, a region of primitive solar-system bodies that share the gas-giant planet's orbit around the Sun—guided by the combined gravitational pull of the Sun and Jupiter.

The spacecraft took 5 years and travelled 2.2 billion miles (since its launch on October 16, 2021) to reach the region and is approaching Jupiter's Lagrange point 4 (L4). This point is surrounded by a group of asteroids that travel ahead of Jupiter in its orbit. The second group, around Lagrange point 5, trails behind the planet.

Scientists call both of these regions unexplored "islands of stability". NASA confirmed that Lucy will visit asteroids in both regions.

Previously, several spacecraft visited Jupiter and even travelled beyond the gas giant using the gravity-assist manoeuvre. However, none of them had the opportunity to visit the Jupiter Trojans, given their distance from the planet. Notably, asteroids in these clusters are as far from Jupiter as the planet is from the Sun, which is around 484 million miles.

Since Lucy was designed for the mission to explore Jupiter Trojans, it is specifically heading for the L4 and L5 points. Since the two Trojan regions are separated from each other by more than 6 million miles on average, they will appear to Lucy as pinpricks of light moving against a field of stars until the spacecraft bears down on its chosen targets, NASA explained.