Hall members support NASA mission encounter with asteroid

Middle Common Room Vice-President Duncan Lyster (2023, DPhil Atmospheric, Oceanic & Planetary Physics) and Tutorial Fellow Professor Carly Howett recently supported the Lucy mission’s encounter of asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson in Boulder, USA.

NASA launched the Lucy probe in October 2021 as part of a 12-year mission to study Jupiter’s trojans – groups of asteroids surrounding the solar system’s largest planet. Preliminary results from the encounter show the asteroid is far from round, better resembling a peanut (8km long and 3.5km wide) and rotating very slowly. More complex data analysis has started with further results expected soon.

The asteroid was named after the American paleoanthropologist Professor Donald Johanson who discovered the “Lucy” hominid fossil – the first fossil discovered of an upright, walking human and the mission’s namesake. Professor Johanson also attended the encounter.

The trip was supported in part by the Tony Doyle Graduate Science Prize from St Edmund Hall.

Find out more about the mission