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Donaldjohanson

All articles tagged with #donaldjohanson

space-exploration5 hours ago•99 min saved

Lucy’s DJ flyby uncovers water clues in an ancient inner-belt asteroid

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft’s April 2025 flyby of the bi-lobed inner-belt asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson (DJ) revealed iron‑bearing phyllosilicates indicating past liquid water and suggested DJ originated from a larger parent body that fractured about 155 million years ago; the findings, published in Science, help explain how water and organics were distributed in the early solar system as Lucy continues toward six Jupiter Trojan targets.

via Space|

#aqueous-alteration #donaldjohanson #inner-asteroid-belt

space1 day ago•3 min saved

Lucy’s Close Encounter Reveals a Water-Rich Fragment from a Violent Ancient Collision

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft captured Donaldjohanson during a 2025 flyby, revealing a peanut-shaped, cratered asteroid about 8 km by 3.5 km that likely formed when a 80 km parent body shattered ~155 million years ago, placing it in the Erigone family. Its two-lobed shape, crater pattern, and recent surface-reset hints (smaller craters erased) support a violent origin with seismic reshaping, while iron-bearing phyllosilicates indicate past liquid water. The findings help constrain how near-Earth asteroids and the solar system evolved, and Lucy heads to the Trojan asteroids in 2027.

via Gizmodo|

#donaldjohanson #erigone-family #lucy-mission

science11 months ago•2 min saved

NASA's Lucy Mission Unveils Full View of Peanut-Shaped Asteroid Donaldjohanson

NASA's Lucy mission captured the first full image of the peanut-shaped asteroid Donaldjohanson during a close flyby, revealing its complex geology and offering insights into asteroid formation and collisional processes, although it is not the mission's primary target. The encounter serves as a rehearsal for future missions to Jupiter's Trojan asteroids, with the next major milestone set for August 2027.

via Gizmodo|

#asteroid #donaldjohanson #lucy-mission