Lucy will explore a record-breaking number of asteroids, flying by three asteroids in the solar system’s main asteroid belt, and by eight Trojan asteroids that share an orbit around the Sun with Jupiter. (Credit: NASA)

2024 Robert M. Walker Distinguished Lectures: Colloquium with Harold Levison on Lucy: The First to the Trojans

Harold Levison, Institute Scientist, Southwest Research Institute and Principal Investigator of the Lucy mission to tour Jupiter Trojans, will present the 2024 Robert M. Walker Distinguished Lectures, Colloquium: "Lucy: The First to the Trojans"

Lucy, selected as part of NASA's Discovery Program, is the first reconnaissance of the Jupiter Trojans, objects that hold vital clues to deciphering the history of the Solar System. Due to an unusual and fortuitous orbital configuration, Lucy will perform a comprehensive investigation that visits six of these primitive bodies, covering both the L4 and L5 swarms, all the known taxonomic types, the largest remnant of a catastrophic collision, and a nearly equal mass binary. 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. Lucy launched on Oct. 16, 2021. It will have its first encounter with a Trojan on Sept. 15, 2027.