Nasa to study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids
>>CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA: Nasa was set yesterday to launch a first-of-its kind mission, dubbed Lucy, to study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids, two large clusters of space rocks that scientists believe are remnants of primordial material that formed the solar system’s outer planets.
The space probe, packed inside a special cargo capsule, was due for liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 5.34am EDT (4.34pm in Thailand), carried aloft by an Atlas V rocket from United Launch Alliance (UAL), a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Barring any hiccups, Lucy would be hurled into space on a 12-year expedition to study a record number of asteroids. It will be the first to explore the Trojans, thousands of rocky objects orbiting the sun in two swarms — one ahead of the path of giant gas planet Jupiter and one behind it.
The largest known Trojan asteroids, named for the warriors of Greek mythology, are believed to measure as much as 225 kilometres (140 miles) in diameter.
Scientists hope Lucy’s close-up fly-by of seven Trojans will yield new clues to how the solar system’s planets came to be formed some 4.5 billion years ago and what shaped their present configuration.
Believed to be rich in carbon compounds, the asteroids may even provide new insights into the origin of organic materials and life on Earth, Nasa said.
“The Trojan asteroids are leftovers from the early days of our solar system, effectively the fossils of planet formation,” principal mission investigator Harold Levison said.
No other single science mission has been designed to visit as many different objects orbiting the sun in the history of space exploration.
Lucy will also do a fly-by of an asteroid in the solar system’s main asteroid belt, called DonaldJohanson in honour of the lead discoverer of the fossilised human ancestor known as Lucy, from which the Nasa mission takes its name.
Following a route that circles back to Earth three times, the probe will be the first spacecraft ever to return to Earth’s vicinity from the outer solar system.