Designing Lucy’s Path to the Trojan Asteroids

Lucy is the first mission to explore the Jupiter Trojans – two swarms of asteroids that share Jupiter’s orbit, leading and trailing the giant planet by sixty degrees. These primitive bodies are thought to be the “fossils” of planet formation, trapped by Jupiter’s gravity at the dawn of the solar system. Now, NASA is sending Lucy on a winding, twelve-year-long path to visit one main-belt asteroid and seven Jupiter Trojans. Lucy will provide the first up-close look at these mysterious objects, helping scientists to better understand the evolution of the solar system. Learn more about Lucy’s path to eight asteroids: Music: “Ocean Simulation” and “The Sequencer Paradox” by Laetitia Frenod; “The Chess Game” by David James Elliott and Martin Gratton; “Tale of Time” by Markus Gleissner, via Universal Production Music Asteroid Ryugu imagery provided by: JAXA Hayabusa 2 Video credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/S