NASA launches Lucy mission to study the ‘fossils’ that created the Solar System

Spaceship Lucy this Saturday successfully started a 12 year mission to the distant Trojan asteroids, a hitherto unexplored region where there may be information to understand How did the solar system form 4.5 billion years ago.

NASA’s Lucy mission, which will travel that time observing a main belt asteroid and seven Trojan asteroids, is the first in history dedicated to studying Trojans that can provide information about how the Solar System was formed.

After creating great expectations, the start of the mission this Saturday had a splendid sunrise on the east coast of Florida (USA), where the launch took place.

On board an Atlas 5 rocket from the United Launch Alliance (ULA), the spacecraft separated from the rocket without any problem, while Lucy’s team of scientists waited “excited“, as described on Twitter, the time of deployment of its solar panels.

The launch took place at 5.34 local (9.34 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida (United States), where applause was produced during the moment of the separation of the rocket and after the deployment of the two solar panels of seven meters long, essential for the operation of the ship.

According the mission website, Lucy will be the first to explore a population of small bodies known as Trojans, or what is the same, outer asteroids of the Solar System that orbit around the Sun “in front of” and “behind” the giant and gaseous planet Jupiter.

He explained that these asteroids are found equidistant between the Sun and Jupiter. On her mission, Lucy will follow an asteroid in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter and seven Trojans, small remnants of the early Solar System trapped in stable orbits and clustered in two “swarms” that guide and escort Jupiter on its way around the Sun.

According to NASA, the seven Trojan asteroids are the Patroclus / Menoetius binary, Eurybates, Orus, Leucus, Polymele, and the main belt asteroid DonaldJohanson.

“These primitive bodies contain vital clues to deciphering the history of our Solar System and they can even tell us about the origins of organic materials and even life on Earth “, details the site www.lucy.swri.edu.

The spacecraft will study the asteroids in a few minutes, while flying over them in the closest distance that will be an average of about 1,000 kilometers.

The mission ends in 2033, but Lucy will continue to “orbit the Sun, passing through swarms of alternate Trojans. for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years“, projected the space agency.