In a couple of days will be launched by NASA the first mission to the Trojan asteroids – mission called LUCY.
Are you ready to join this mission by watching its first seconds and minutes?
During the course of its mission, Lucy will fly by seven Jupiter Trojans. This time-lapsed animation shows the movements of the inner planets (Mercury, brown; Venus, white; Earth, blue; Mars, red), Jupiter (orange), and the two Trojan swarms (green) during the course of the Lucy mission. Image credit: Petr Scheirich (Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences)
Description to animation above:
Jupiter’s Trojans (green) follow the giant planet (orange) on its orbit around the Sun. This animation shows their movements along with the inner planets. Though not obvious here, many of the asteroids have large orbital inclinations, up to 40° above Jupiter’s orbital plane. [1]
Dr. Jozef Kozár is a scientist and writer, studying planets, Solar System, and robotic space exploration missions. He is the author of seven books, author of several hundred articles published in various scientific and popular magazines, a former public speaker, and a documentary movies/TV guest.
Jozef's Mars research and the “GNSS for Mars” project became well known especially in 2015 when it attracted many local and worldwide media. Jozef earned his Ph.D. in the field of aerospace from the Technical University of Kosice in 2016. During his following career, he left his home country and completed a professional university course in planetary science – the science of the Solar System, at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, California in 2019. View all posts by Joe
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