Yesterday, October 25 (20:19)
NASA has released an impressive photo of Earth and the Moon, which Lucy took shortly before she flew over Earth on October 16 to capture the speed. This is the first of three such maneuvers to help the spacecraft reach its mission destination, the so-called Trojan asteroids orbiting the Sun in an orbit close to that of Jupiter. Launched on October 16 last year, Lucy is set to visit some of these cosmic rocks believed to be remnants of the early evolution of the Solar System on a 12-year journey. Her research aims to help understand how planets form.
The probe captured the published image of Earth and the Moon on October 13 1.4 million kmWith the help of a peripheral tracking camera (T2CAM). This is a pair of identical cameras that will be responsible for tracking asteroids through the passages. The second photo was taken by the same cameras on October 15, while Lucy was there 620,000 km from Earth. In both cases, the images were taken as part of the device calibration procedure.
In the image of the Earth, on the top left you can see it Hatra region in EthiopiaThe remains of a female Australopithecus, a 3.2 million-year-old human ancestor, were discovered in 1974. At that time, Lucy was named after the Beatles’ song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, then the name was also given to the space probe. The Lucy spacecraft passed again just 350 kilometers above Earth on October 16 Will be back in just over two years.
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