São Paulo (Reuters) – NASA launched an unprecedented mission on Saturday to study “Trojan” asteroids on Jupiter, two large masses of space rock that scientists believe are the remnants of material that formed the outer planets of the solar system.
The space probe, nicknamed Lucy and packed inside a special shipping container, took off on time from the US Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida at 6:34 a.m. EDT, NASA said. The equipment was launched on an Atlas V rocket from United Launch Alliance (UAL), a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Lucy’s mission is a 12-year expedition to study asteroid record numbers. It will be the first to explore the “Trojans,” the thousands of rocky bodies orbiting the sun in two groups – one in front of Jupiter’s path and the other behind.
It is believed that the largest known Trojan asteroid, named after the warriors of Greek mythology, reaches a diameter of 225 kilometers.
Scientists hope that Lucy’s trip over seven Trojan rocks will provide new clues about how the planets of the solar system formed about 4.5 billion years ago and what shaped their current formation.
Lucy will also fly over an asteroid in the main belt of the solar system, called Donald Johansson, named after the main discoverer of a fossilized human ancestor known as “Lucy”. Lucy’s fossil, discovered in Ethiopia in 1974, in turn inspired the Beatles’ song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”
The probe will use the rockets to maneuver into space and two circular solar panels, each the width of a school bus, will recharge the batteries that power the instruments in Lucy’s body.
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