NASA snaps detailed photos of 'strikingly complicated' asteroid

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft successfully completed its second encounter with an asteroid recently, this time with the asteroid named Donaldjohanson. During the rendezvous on April 20, Lucy’s Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (L’LORRI) captured images of the elongated asteroid from a distance of about 600 miles, revealing its intricate geology. According to Hal Levison, the principal investigator of Lucy at the Southwest Research Institute, the images provide valuable insights into the asteroid’s formation and the processes that shaped our Solar System.

In a statement released by NASA on April 21, Levison mentioned, “Studying the complex structures in detail will offer significant information about the origins and development of the planets in our Solar System.”

Timelapse photos of approaching asteroid — The asteroid Donaldjohanson as seen by the Lucy Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (L’LORRI) on NASA’s Lucy spacecraft during its flyby. This timelapse shows images captured approximately every 2 seconds beginning at 1:50 p.m. EDT (17:50 UTC), April 20, 2025. The asteroid rotates very slowly; its apparent rotation here is due to the spacecraft’s motion as it flies by Donaldjohanson at a distance of 1,000 to 660 miles (1,600 to 1,100 km). The spacecraft’s closest approach distance was 600 miles (960 km), but the images shown were taken approximately 40 seconds beforehand, the nearest ones at a distance of 660 miles (1100 km). Credit: NASA / Goddard / SwRI / Johns Hopkins APL

The detailed observations of Donaldjohanson validate earlier findings by astronomers, particularly the asteroid’s 10-day brightness fluctuation cycle. The images reveal an elongated asteroid believed to have formed from the collision of two smaller bodies. Researchers also noted the distinct neck shape that connects the two lobes of Donaldjohanson.

Surprisingly, the asteroid’s size exceeded initial estimates, measuring approximately 5 miles in length and 2 miles in width. Donaldjohanson was even wider than the field of view of Lucy, and it will take some time for the remaining data to be transmitted back to Earth. Additional information will be extracted from data collected by the L’Ralph color imager, infrared spectrometer, and the L’TES thermal infrared spectrometer.

This recent encounter with Donaldjohanson marks Lucy’s second asteroid rendezvous, following its close pass by Dinkinesh (also known as “Dinky”) and its satellite, Selam, 16 months ago. Donaldjohanson is the second of 10 asteroids that Lucy is slated to study during its 12-year mission.

Tom Statler, a NASA program scientist for the Lucy mission, expressed excitement about the upcoming exploration of the Trojan asteroids, stating, “The potential to gain new insights into the history of our solar system when Lucy reaches the Trojan asteroids is enormous.” Lucy will now traverse the solar system’s main asteroid belt for the remainder of 2025 as it heads towards its primary target, the Jupiter Trojan asteroid Eurybates. The final flyby is scheduled for August 2027.

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