A fleet of spacecraft is heading off to explore 11 asteroids in the solar system in search of clues to the origins of planets, water and life on Earth.
, two groups of space rocks that share an orbit with Jupiter around the sun . The asteroids occupy areas known as Lagrange points, where the gravitational pulls of Jupiter and the sun cancel each other out. These regions are like cosmic dead zones and have been collecting planetary flotsam for billions of years. Those asteroids and other bits of debris are like fossils of the early solar system.
Over the next 12 years, Lucy will make five flybys to observe seven Trojan asteroids, plus one asteroid in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter for good measure. By the end of its mission, Lucy will have visited more objects than any other NASA mission.The next mission to head out was NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, which launched November 24 to deliberately ram into an asteroid in an attempt to alter its orbit.
The Psyche mission will study the metal-rich asteroid 16 Psyche , which may be the core of a protoplanet that lost its mantle and crust.Last up is Psyche, which is set to launch in August 2022. The NASA spacecraft will visit 16 Psyche, an asteroid that seems to be made up almost entirely of metal. It may be the exposed core of a protoplanet that lost its outer mantle and crust in cosmic collisions long ago.
Psyche will arrive at its destination in 2026 and spend 21 months measuring the asteroid’s magnetic field and composition from orbit. One question isSign Up For the Latest fromClient key*
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