Why Nasa is launching robo archaeologist named Lucy

Source: This post is based on the article “Why Nasa is launching robo archaeologist named Lucy” published in “The Times of India”on 16th October 2021. 

What is the News? 

NASA is about to launch a probe toward clusters of asteroids along Jupiter’s orbital path. They are known as the Trojan swarms. It represents the final unexplored regions of asteroids in the solar system. 

More about the news

The spacecraft, a deep-space robotic archaeologist named Lucy will study the geology, composition, density and structure of the Trojans. 

After a six-year cruise, Lucy will fly close to seven Trojan asteroids by 2033. 

What is the aim of the project? 

NASA is interested in finding primordial organic material on asteroids because billions of years ago, they may have seeded Earth with the chemical ingredients necessary for life. 

What are Trojan asteroids? 

Trojan asteroids are the asteroids that orbit around the Sun near the orbit of Jupiter. These asteroids move in their own stable orbits in fixed points either ahead or behind the orbit of Jupiter (called Lagrangian Points) 

Other asteroid missions

Dawn mission (NASA) orbited Ceres and Vesta the two largest worlds in the belt between Mars and Jupiter. 

Hayabusa mission (JAXA-Japan) probed asteroid “Ryugu” 

OSIRIS-REX(NASA) spacecraft probed asteroid “Bennu” and collected samples from there. 

Read More: Lucy mission