Key Takeaways:
- 1. The IAU approved official names for features on the asteroid Donaldjohanson visited by NASA’s Lucy spacecraft.
- 2. The names chosen by IAU recognize significant sites and discoveries related to human origins on Earth.
- 3. The Lucy spacecraft is en route to its first encounter with a Trojan asteroid called Eurybates in August 2027.
The IAU has assigned official names to features on the asteroid Donaldjohanson, visited by NASA's Lucy spacecraft. The names honor significant paleoanthropological sites and discoveries related to human evolution on Earth. Lucy is on its way to encounter the Trojan asteroid Eurybates in August 2027 after a successful exploration of Donaldjohanson, where its science instruments conducted observation sequences similar to those planned for the Trojan asteroids.
Insight: The naming of features on Donaldjohanson after significant paleoanthropological sites and discoveries reflects the mission's focus on revolutionizing our understanding of human and solar system evolution. Lucy's journey towards the Trojan asteroids continues, with the spacecraft currently three quarters of the way through the main asteroid belt, on track for its upcoming encounter with Eurybates in 2027.
This article was curated by memoment.jp from the feed source: NASA.
Read the original article here: https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/regions-on-asteroid-explored-by-nasas-lucy-mission-get-official-names/
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