NASA Lucy mission: the first spacecraft to study Jupiter's Trojan asteroids

·         NASA is set to launch ‘Lucy’, the first spacecraft to study Jupiter's Trojan asteroids, on October 16, 2021.

·         The Lucy spacecraft is scheduled to launch on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

·         The spacecraft will be launched on a 12-year mission to help scientists get a closer look at Trojan asteroids.

·         The Lucy mission is named after a partial skeleton discovered from a human ancestor who is believed to have lived more than 3 million years ago.

·         NASA's Juno spacecraft has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016, but the Lucy spacecraft will be the first to study Trojan asteroids to orbit the Sun in two teams, one ahead of Jupiter and the other behind the planet.

Important facts

About the planet Jupiter

v  It is the largest planet in the solar system.

v  It is the fifth planet from the Sun.

v  It is the fastest rotating planet in the solar system.

v  Jupiter has 67 moons.