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52246 Donaldjohanson
52246 Donaldjohanson ( provisional designation ) is a carbonaceous asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately long and at its widest point. It was discovered on 2 March 1981, by American astronomer Schelte Bus at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia. The C-type asteroid was the 2nd target of the ''Lucy'' mission, with the spacecraft flying 960 km (600 mi) from the surface on 20 April 2025, revealing the asteroid to be a contact binary. It was named after American paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson, the discoverer of the "Lucy" hominid fossil. Orbit and classification Donaldjohanson is a member of the Erigone family (), a large carbonaceous asteroid family of nearly 2,000 known members, which is named after its parent body 163 Erigone. The Erigone family is a relatively old family that was created by an asteroid collision approximately 150 million years ago. Since Donaldjohanson belongs to this family, it likely has the same age of 150 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucy (spacecraft)
''Lucy'' is a NASA space probe on a twelve-year journey to eight different asteroids. It is slated to visit two Asteroid belt, main belt asteroids as well as six Jupiter trojans – asteroids that share Jupiter's orbit around the Sun, orbiting either ahead of or behind the planet. All target encounters will be Flyby (spaceflight), flyby encounters. The ''Lucy'' spacecraft is the centerpiece of a US$981 million mission. On 4 January 2017, ''Lucy'' was chosen, along with the Psyche (spacecraft), ''Psyche'' mission, as NASA's Discovery Program missions 13 and 14 respectively. It was launched on 16 October 2021. In November 2023 and in April 2025 it flew by and photographed asteroids 152830 Dinkinesh, Dinkinesh and Donaldjohanson, respectively. Lucy will reach its first main target, the Jupiter Trojan asteroid 3548_Eurybates, Eurybates, in August 2027. The mission is named after the Lucy (Australopithecus), Lucy hominin fossils, because study of the trojans could reveal the "foss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Animation Of Lucy's Trajectory Around Sun
Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animation has been recognised as an artistic medium, specifically within the Entertainment#Industry, entertainment industry. Many animations are either traditional animations or computer animations made with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Stop motion animation, in particular claymation, has continued to exist alongside these other forms. Animation is contrasted with live action, although the two do not exist in isolation. Many moviemakers have produced Live-action animation, films that are a hybrid of the two. As CGI increasingly Photorealism, approximates photographic imagery, filmmakers can easily Compositing, composite 3D animations into their film rather than using practical effects for showy visual effects (VFX). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asteroid Spectral Type
An asteroid spectral type is assigned to asteroids based on their reflectance spectrum, color, and sometimes albedo. These types are thought to correspond to an asteroid's surface composition. For small bodies that are not internally differentiated, the surface and internal compositions are presumably similar, while large bodies such as Ceres and Vesta are known to have internal structure. Over the years, there has been a number of surveys that resulted in a set of different taxonomic systems such as the Tholen, SMASS and Bus–DeMeo classifications. Taxonomic systems In 1975, astronomers Clark R. Chapman, David Morrison, and Ben Zellner developed a simple taxonomic system for asteroids based on color, albedo, and spectral shape. The three categories were labelled " C" for dark carbonaceous objects, " S" for stony (siliceous) objects, and "U" for those that did not fit into either C or S. This basic division of asteroid spectra has since been expanded and clarified.T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucy Donaldjohanson Encounter
Lucy is an English feminine given name derived from the Latin masculine given name Lucius with the meaning ''as of light'' (''born at dawn or daylight'', maybe also ''shiny'', or ''of light complexion''). Alternative spellings are Luci, Luce, Lucie, Lucia, and Luzia. The English Lucy surname is taken from the Norman language that was Latin-based and derives from place names in Normandy based on the Latin male personal name Lucius. It was transmitted to England after the Norman Conquest in the 11th century (see also De Lucy). Feminine name variants *Luíseach ( Irish) *Lusine, Լուսինե, Լուսինէ (Armenian) *Lucija, Луција (Serbian) *Lucy, Люси ( Bulgarian) *Lutsi, Луци (Macedonian) *Lutsija, Луција (Macedonian) *Liùsaidh (Scottish Gaelic) *Liucija (Lithuanian) *Liucilė (Lithuanian) *Lūcija, Lūsija ( Latvian) *Lleucu (Welsh) *Llúcia ( Catalan) *Loukia, Λουκία (Greek) *Luca ( Hungarian) *Luce (French, Italian) *Lucetta (English) *Lucet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Observation Arc
In observational astronomy, the observation arc (or arc length) of a Solar System body is the time period between its earliest and latest observations, used for tracing the body's path. It is usually given in days or years. The term is mostly used in the discovery and tracking of asteroids and comets. Arc length has the greatest influence on the accuracy of an orbital estimate. The number, spacing of intermediate observations, and timestamps have a lesser effect. Short arcs A very short arc leaves a high uncertainty parameter. The object might be in one of many different orbits, at many distances from Earth. In some cases, the initial arc was too short to determine if the object was in orbit around the Earth, or orbiting out in the asteroid belt. With a 1-day observation arc, was thought to be a trans-Neptunian dwarf planet, but is now known to be a 1 km main-belt asteroid. With an observation arc of 3 days, was thought to be a Mars-crossing asteroid that could be a thr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Precovery
In astronomy, precovery (short for pre-discovery recovery) is the process of finding the image of a celestial object in images or photographic plates predating its discovery, typically for the purpose of calculating a more accurate orbit. This happens most often with minor planets, but sometimes a comet, a dwarf planet, a natural satellite, or a star is found in old archived images; even exoplanet precovery observations have been obtained. "Precovery" refers to a pre-discovery image; "recovery" refers to imaging of a body which was lost to our view (as behind the Sun), but is now visible again ''(also see lost minor planet and lost comet)''. Orbit determination requires measuring an object's position on multiple occasions. The longer the interval between observations, the more accurately the orbit can be calculated; however, for a newly discovered object, only a few days' or weeks' worth of measured positions may be available, sufficient only for a preliminary (imprecise) orbit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ecliptic
The ecliptic or ecliptic plane is the orbital plane of Earth's orbit, Earth around the Sun. It was a central concept in a number of ancient sciences, providing the framework for key measurements in astronomy, astrology and calendar-making. From the perspective of an observer on Earth, the Sun's movement around the celestial sphere over the course of a year traces out a path along the ecliptic against the fixed stars, background of stars – specifically the Zodiac constellations. The planets of the Solar System can also be seen along the ecliptic, because their orbital planes are very close to Earth's. The Moon's orbital plane is also similar to Earth's; the ecliptic is so named because the ancients noted that eclipses only occur when the Moon is crossing it. The ecliptic is an important Plane of reference, reference plane and is the basis of the ecliptic coordinate system. Ancient scientists were able to calculate Earth's axial tilt by comparing the ecliptic plane to that of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orbital Inclination
Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object. For a satellite orbiting the Earth directly above the Equator, the plane of the satellite's orbit is the same as the Earth's equatorial plane, and the satellite's orbital inclination is 0°. The general case for a circular orbit is that it is tilted, spending half an orbit over the northern hemisphere and half over the southern. If the orbit swung between 20° north latitude and 20° south latitude, then its orbital inclination would be 20°. Orbits The inclination is one of the six orbital elements describing the shape and orientation of a celestial orbit. It is the angle between the orbital plane and the plane of reference, normally stated in degrees. For a satellite orbiting a planet, the plane of reference is usually the plane containing the planet's equator. For pla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orbital Eccentricity
In astrodynamics, the orbital eccentricity of an astronomical object is a dimensionless parameter that determines the amount by which its orbit around another body deviates from a perfect circle. A value of 0 is a circular orbit, values between 0 and 1 form an elliptic orbit, 1 is a parabolic escape orbit (or capture orbit), and greater than 1 is a hyperbola. The term derives its name from the parameters of conic sections, as every Kepler orbit is a conic section. It is normally used for the isolated two-body problem, but extensions exist for objects following a rosette orbit through the Galaxy. Definition In a two-body problem with inverse-square-law force, every orbit is a Kepler orbit. The eccentricity of this Kepler orbit is a non-negative number that defines its shape. The eccentricity may take the following values: * Circular orbit: * Elliptic orbit: * Parabolic trajectory: * Hyperbolic trajectory: The eccentricity is given by e = \sqrt where ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Semi-major Axis
In geometry, the major axis of an ellipse is its longest diameter: a line segment that runs through the center and both foci, with ends at the two most widely separated points of the perimeter. The semi-major axis (major semiaxis) is the longest semidiameter or one half of the major axis, and thus runs from the centre, through a focus, and to the perimeter. The semi-minor axis (minor semiaxis) of an ellipse or hyperbola is a line segment that is at right angles with the semi-major axis and has one end at the center of the conic section. For the special case of a circle, the lengths of the semi-axes are both equal to the radius of the circle. The length of the semi-major axis of an ellipse is related to the semi-minor axis's length through the eccentricity and the semi-latus rectum \ell, as follows: The semi-major axis of a hyperbola is, depending on the convention, plus or minus one half of the distance between the two branches. Thus it is the distance from the ce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
163 Erigone
163 Erigone is an asteroid from the asteroid belt and the namesake of the Erigone family of asteroids that share similar orbital elements and properties. It was discovered by French astronomer Henri Joseph Perrotin on April 26, 1876, and named after one of the two Erigones in Greek mythology. This asteroid is orbiting the Sun at a distance of with a period of and an eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.19. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 4.8° to the plane of the ecliptic. Photometric measurements taken in 2014 were used to construct a lightcurve that demonstrated a rotation period of with an amplitude of in magnitude. Erigone is a relatively large and dark asteroid with an estimated size of 73 km. Based upon its spectrum, it is classified as a C-type asteroid, which indicates that it probably has a carbonaceous composition. It is the largest member of the eponymously named Erigone collisional family. 2014 occultation of Regulus In the early morning hours of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
