Asteroid-Hunting NASA Spacecraft to Slingshot Around Earth Tonight. Watch it Live

The asteroid hunting spacecraft Lucy volition marque its 2nd gravity assistance of Earth today, swinging by our airy bluish dot connected its mode to a radical of asteroids known arsenic the Trojans.

Lucy is simply a spacecraft connected a 12-year journey into the distant star system, wherever it volition analyse a group of asteroids to amended recognize the origins of the outer planets and the commencement of the star system. But Lucy needs a small propulsion to get there, and its upcoming flyby is acceptable to hap contiguous astir 11:15 p.m. Eastern Time, according to to a NASA statement.

It is simply a communal presumption that erstwhile a ngo launches, it is gone, ne'er to beryllium seen astir these parts again. That is often untrue—spacecraft don’t transportation overmuch substance and often leverage the gravitational propulsion of star strategy objects to hasten their question to (relatively) faraway parts of the universe. Tonight, Lucy volition bash precisely that, slingshotting astir Earth to summation the velocity it needs for its travel to research the Trojan asteroids.

As Lucy passes implicit Earth tonight, it volition beryllium traveling implicit 33,000 miles per hr (53,100 km/hr). Lucy volition walk astir 20 minutes traveling done Earth’s shadiness and whitethorn go disposable erstwhile it emerges connected the different side.

At its nearest attack tonight, Lucy whitethorn beryllium disposable to observers with a scope successful occidental Africa oregon eastbound South America. It volition beryllium harder for observers successful the eastbound U.S. to spot the probe due to the fact that we volition beryllium connected the acheronian broadside of Lucy’s star panels, portion those connected the different broadside of the spacecraft volition payment from airy glinting disconnected the surfaces. The Virtual Telescope Project 2.0 is besides hosting a live feed (available above) of the Lucy probe arsenic it makes its plaything by our world.

Earlier this week, the European Space Agency’s BepiColombo spacecraft flew by Mercury for the fifth time, arsenic the bureau plans for the spacecraft’s accomplishment successful the planet’s orbit successful November 2026. This November, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe made its last flyby of Venus, utilizing our next-door-neighbor’s gravity to fling itself to the aboveground of our star. Parker’s closest approach of the Sun is acceptable to hap connected Christmas Eve.

A graphic showing Lucy’s 2nd Earth gravity assist. Image: NASA

This is really Lucy’s 2nd gravity assistance of Earth; its archetypal occurred successful October 2022 and enabled the spacecraft to plaything by the small asteroid Dinkinesh. The upcoming gravity assistance volition enactment Lucy into a six-year orbit that volition nonstop the spacecraft done the asteroid loop and to the Trojan asteroids, with a archetypal brushwood expected successful 2027. The gravity assistance volition summation Lucy’s velocity with respect to the Sun by implicit 16,000 miles per hr (25,750 kilometers per hour).

Lucy’s adjacent halt volition beryllium the main loop asteroid Donaldjohanson, which the spacecraft volition walk connected April 20, 2025. After that, it’s to infinity—erm, the asteroid belt—and beyond.