Lucy Flyby of Asteroid Donaldjohanson: Animations

  • Released Monday, April 14, 2025
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Close up of Lucy's APP swiveling to keep DJ in frame.

NASA’s Lucy mission is heading to the Jupiter Trojans – an unexplored population of asteroids considered to be the fossils of planetary formation. Along the way, Lucy is traveling through the main asteroid belt, on course to fly past 52246 Donaldjohanson on April 20, 2025. The asteroid was named in honor of the paleoanthropologist who discovered the Lucy fossil in 1974, rewriting the textbooks on human origins.

Donaldjohanson is a member of the Erigone asteroid family, created about 150 million years ago when the large asteroid 163 Erigone was pummeled in a collision. Earth-based observations suggest that it is carbon-rich, has an average diameter of about 4 kilometers, and spins on its axis extremely slowly, giving it a 251-hour “day.” Shortly after the flyby, Lucy will deliver the first close-up views of Donaldjohanson, bringing to light a surviving remnant of the solar system’s chaotic past.

DonaldJohanson 3D model turntable.

Lucy's POV of DJ during the flyby.

Lucy slowly slews to track DJ.

Lucy slowly slews to track DJ.

Simulation of a detailed scan of DJ.

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab

This page was originally published on Monday, April 14, 2025.
This page was last updated on Friday, April 4, 2025 at 1:36 PM EDT.

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