NASA's Lucy Mission Discovers Unexpected Bonus Asteroid During High-Speed Encounter

NASA's Lucy mission, en route to explore the Trojan asteroids, has successfully completed its first high-speed encounter with an asteroid called Dinkinesh. The mission, designed to study the pristine building blocks of planets, discovered that Dinkinesh is actually an "asteroid binary," with a smaller asteroid orbiting a larger one. Lucy's powerful cameras will observe the composition, mass, and geologic history of the Trojans to understand their role in the formation of our solar system. The next asteroid encounter is scheduled for 2025, with the mission reaching the first Trojan in 2027.