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Lucy, a NASA mission that will study Jupiter and the birth of the solar system

Lucy, a NASA mission, will go down in history on Saturday, October 16th and fill the sky with diamonds (yes, the name is inspired by the Beatles song) to study Jupiter and learn more about the origin of the solar system.

Investigation – who also supervises Lucy, the grandmother of humanity– It will be launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and its purpose will be to explore Trojan asteroids stuck in stable orbits, near Jupiter, which contains Basic information for reconstructing the history of the solar system.

“Just as our fossilized human ancestors provided unique insight into the evolution of humanity, Lucy will revolutionize our understanding of the origins of planets and the formation of the solar system,” the US space agency explained.

he thinks that Asteroids are small primitive debris that separated from other planetsIn the case of Trojan asteroids, the objects are close to the gas giant Jupiter, which is the fifth in order of distance from the Sun.

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Lucy, NASA mission

The Atlas V missile, from United Launch Alliance, with Lucy’s investigation From the Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Once out of Earth’s atmosphere, Lucy will get a boost from Earth’s gravity on her long journey.

fact, It is estimated that it will take three years to reach its first destination.

It is planned to fly over a record number of targets, In 12 years you will visit eight different asteroids, Seven Trojans (four of them are members of binary systems, two in one) are named Patroclus / Minisio, In addition to Eurybate, Orus, Leoco, Polymele And one of the main belts is called Donald Johansson.

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Lucy will showcase for the first time the diversity of primordial bodies that formed the planets, considering capsules that remain intact over time.

It will send pictures of the three main types of asteroid swarm objects (their names are not very clever, they are called C, P and D).

Dark red Trojans of type P and D are similar to those in the Kuiper belt, the farthest region in the Solar System, after Neptune.

Type C asteroids are mainly found in the outer parts of the main asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter.

All Trojans are thought to be made up of dark carbon, and water and other volatiles are likely to be found under a surface layer of dust.

The formation of the solar system

More than 4,000 million years ago, a series of violent collisions gave rise to the sun and the planets that make up the solar system, and the remnants of that ring have been found circling in the heliosphere, a very vast region, where all the bodies are. It is affected by wind and solar gravity.

Trojans orbit the sun in two separate groups, one in front of Jupiter’s path and the other behind.

They are grouped into two Lagrangian points (or swarms) because they are locations where organisms tend to congregate in space.

During her mission, Lucy will fly aboard seven Jupiter Trojans. This sequence animation shows the motions of the inner planets (Mercury, brown; Venus, white; Earth, blue; Mars, red), Jupiter (orange) and two Trojans (green) (Animation: CAS Astronomical Institute/Petr Sherish/ NASA)

The effect of the sun on asteroids

The sun exerts a gravitational force on these objects which have their own trajectory and can change the speed of their rotation.

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When one side of an asteroid facing the Sun absorbs sunlight, the dark side releases energy in the form of heat. When the heat runs out, it creates a tiny amount of thrust, which slightly modifies the asteroid’s path.” (With information from NASA)