Monday, January 19, 2026 at 3:30 pm

JILA auditorium

Hal Levison, SWRI

"Lucy - First to the Trojans"

Abstract:

I will discuss NASA's Lucy mission, which is the first reconnaissance of the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. Asteroids are the leftovers from the age of planet formation. But, unlike the planets themselves, they have remained relatively unchanged since they formed. As a result, they hold vital clues to how our Solar System formed and evolved, and thus can be considered the fossils of planet formation. Lucy will visit eight of these important objects between 2027 and 2033. It will use a suite of remote sensing instruments to map geologic, surface color and composition, thermal and other physical properties of its targets at close range. Lucy, like the human fossil for which it is named, will revolutionize the understanding of our origins.

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