Overview

• The Lucy spacecraft has captured its first images of the main-belt asteroid Donaldjohanson from a distance of 45 million miles (70 million kilometers).
• Donaldjohanson, named after the anthropologist who discovered the fossil Lucy, is approximately 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) in diameter and orbits in the inner asteroid belt.
• Lucy will pass within 596 miles (960 kilometers) of Donaldjohanson on April 20, 2025, as part of a test run for its primary mission to study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids.
• The spacecraft previously imaged the asteroid Dinkinesh and its moon Selam in November 2023 and has completed two Earth gravity assists to increase its speed.
• The mission aims to study the Trojan asteroids, which are considered remnants from the early solar system and may provide insight into planetary formation processes.