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High Speed Encounter

All articles tagged with #high speed encounter

space2 years ago

NASA's Lucy spacecraft successfully communicates with mystery asteroids during high-speed flybys

NASA's Lucy spacecraft, on a 12-year mission to explore Jupiter's Trojan asteroids, successfully completed its first high-speed encounter with a small main belt asteroid called Dinkinesh. The spacecraft "phoned home" to NASA and is considered to be in good health. Data obtained during the encounter will be relayed to researchers over the next week to assess Lucy's performance. Multiple instruments on the spacecraft were activated during the encounter, including a high-resolution camera, color imager, and infrared spectrometer. Lucy will continue to periodically observe Dinkinesh for another four days as it moves away from the asteroid.