Lucy Will Explore Asteroid Donaldjohanson

Released Monday, April 14, 2025

ID: 14821

- Produced by:
- Dan Gallagher
- Visualizations by:
- Adriana Manrique Gutierrez
- and Kel Elkins

Lucy’s flyby of main-belt asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson will provide the first close look at this surviving remnant of the solar system’s chaotic past.

Complete transcript available.

Universal Production Music: “Nico’s Journey” by Nicholas Smith [PRS]; “Knowing Half the Future” and “Temporal Timings” by Lee John Gretton [PRS]; “Poly Propulsion” by Alfie Solo [PRS]

Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.

NASA’s Lucy mission is heading to the Jupiter Trojans – an unexplored population of asteroids considered to be the fossils of planetary formation. Along the way, Lucy is traveling through the main asteroid belt, on course to fly past 52246 Donaldjohanson on April 20, 2025. The asteroid was named in honor of the paleoanthropologist who discovered the Lucy fossil in 1974, rewriting the textbooks on human origins.

Donaldjohanson is a member of the Erigone asteroid family, created about 150 million years ago when the large asteroid 163 Erigone was pummeled in a collision. Earth-based observations suggest that it is carbon-rich, has an average diameter of about 4 kilometers, and spins on its axis extremely slowly, giving it a 251-hour “day.” Shortly after the flyby, Lucy will deliver the first close-up views of Donaldjohanson, bringing to light a surviving remnant of the solar system’s chaotic past.

Learn how Lucy is preparing for its encounter with asteroid Donaldjohanson.

VERSION EN ESPAÑOL – Nuestra misión Lucy se dirige hacia los troyanos de Júpiter, una población inexplorada de asteroides considerados como fósiles de la formación planetaria. En su trayecto, Lucy está atravesando el cinturón principal de asteroides, con rumbo al asteroide 52246 Donaldjohanson, el cual sobrevolará el 20 de abril de 2025.

Mira este video en el canal de YouTube de NASA en Español.