NASA’s asteroid-visiting mission Lucy will likely be popping again to Earth on Sunday (Oct. 16), giving skywatchers a quick alternative to identify the spacecraft.
Precisely one yr after it launched on Oct. 16, 2021, Lucy will skim Earth’s atmosphere in a maneuver to facilitate its 12-year-mission to go to the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. At its closest strategy, Lucy will cross Earth at round 220 miles (350 kilometers) above the planet’s floor across the Pacific Ocean.
The transient return will permit the spacecraft to choose up orbital vitality that may slingshot it towards the distant asteroid group, which no mission has ever visited earlier than. However observers from across the globe may even be capable to attempt to spot Lucy because it travels previous the planet.
Associated : Meet the 8 asteroids NASA’s Lucy spacecraft will visit
As Lucy approaches Earth , it can accomplish that from the course of the sun, so the spacecraft can have been obscured by the glare of the star for the times main as much as its arrival at Earth.
Simply earlier than its closest strategy, nevertheless, the spacecraft will cross the road that divides the night time and day sides of Earth, known as the terminator line, and enter Earth’s nightside whereas nonetheless illuminated by the sun , making it seen.
Observers situated in northwestern Australia, Timor-Leste and components of Indonesia will be capable to see Lucy with the bare eye because it strikes towards its closest strategy between round 6:55 a.m. EDT and seven:02 a.m. EDT (1055 GMT and 1102 GMT, or 6:55 p.m. to 7:02 p.m. native time in western Australia), according to mission personnel .
Subsequent, Lucy will cross into Earth’s shadow. When it reemerges at 7:26 a.m. EDT (1126 GMT), the spacecraft will likely be greater than 4,300 miles (virtually 7,000 kilometers) from Earth however ought to nonetheless be observable from western Australia with binoculars or a telescope with a large area of view.
As Lucy slingshots again into deep space, it ought to stay seen throughout the globe however solely to observers utilizing telescopes. Skywatchers with a 5- to6-inch telescope observers might be able to see Lucy for maybe 12 to 24 hours after its closest strategy because it retreats from Earth, mission personnel famous. With a bigger telescope, observers might be able to monitor Lucy for longer.
Exact coordinates will likely be wanted to trace Lucy because it strikes away from Earth and can be found on NASA’s Horizon System app .
Beginner astronomers will not be the one observers from Earth making an attempt to get a superb have a look at Lucy because it passes the planet.
The Desert Fireball Community staff from Curtin College’s House Science and Expertise Centre will journey to Port Hedland, Western Australia, to seize video footage of the NASA spacecraft because it will get near Earth at round 7 p.m. native time on Sunday, in response to a statement .
Curtin astronomer Hadrien Devillepoix famous that the observations have a selected purpose. “We try to get a glimpse of Lucy’s solar panel reflecting the sun, and hopefully that may inform the NASA engineers whether or not the panels have absolutely deployed and are locked in place — a crucial step earlier than Lucy can hearth up its predominant engine,” Devillepoix stated. Shortly after the spacecraft launched, mission personnel realized that one in every of its two massive, fan-like solar arrays wasn’t absolutely open; the staff now believes the issue is almost entirely fixed and will not have an effect on the mission.
Anybody who manages to catch a picture or video of Lucy on Sunday can share it throughout social media with the hashtag #SpotTheSpacecraft.
This would possibly not be the final time Lucy swings previous Earth. The spacecraft will return in two years for a second gravity help that may redirect it towards six Trojan asteroids: Eurybates and its satellite Queta , Polymele and its yet –unnamed satellite , Leucus and Orus.
After this, Lucy will return a 3rd time in 2030, sending it to fulfill the Patroclus-Menoetius binary asteroid pair situated within the Trojan asteroid swarm that trails behind Jupiter in its orbit.
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