Lucy Sees Asteroid Dinkinesh in Detail

On November 1, 2023, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft flew by the main-belt asteroid Dinkinesh. Now, the mission has released pictures from Lucy’s Long Range Reconnaissance Imager taken over a roughly three-hour period, providing the best views of the asteroid to date. During the flyby, Lucy discovered that Dinkinesh has a small moon, which the mission named “Selam,” a greeting in the Amharic language meaning “peace.” Lucy is the first mission designed to visit the Jupiter Trojans, two swarms of asteroids trapped in Jupiter’s orbit that may be “fossils” from the era of planet formation.

Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Dan Gallagher: Producer/Narrator
Harold Levison: Scientist
John Spencer: Scientist
Brian May: Image Processing
Claudia Manzoni: Image Processing
Bill Steigerwald: Science Writer
Katherine Kretke: Public Affairs
Nancy Jones: Public Affairs
Aaron Lepsch: Technical Support

Universal Production Music: “Gaining Positivity” by Ho Ling Tang [BMI] and Harry Gregson Williams [BMI], Atmosphere Music Ltd. [PRS]

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