Animation of individual images from Lucy's flyby of Donaldjohanson
Animation of individual images from Lucy's flyby of Donaldjohanson
This time-lapse animation strings together a series of individual images of asteroid Donaldjohanson, as seen by the Lucy spacecraft during its close flyby. The asteroid has a smooth, light-grey surface with soft craters pitting its surface. The larger of the two lobes in this binary system shows many more craters. The individual images were taken on 20 April 2025, starting at 19:50 CEST, from distances ranging between 1600 to 1100 kilometres, at intervals of approximately two seconds. The asteroid itself rotates very slowly; the apparent rotation in this animation is due to the movement of the spacecraft.
Credit:
NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL