A NASA spacecraft will swing by Earth on Sunday - CNN

CNN  — 

This Sunday, a spacecraft called Lucy volition beryllium successful the entity – conscionable without diamonds.

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft will skirt Earth, coming wrong conscionable a fewer 100 miles of america connected its travel to the far-off Jupiter Trojan asteroids.

The spacecraft volition walk 220 miles supra Earth’s aboveground connected Sunday morning, according to a quality merchandise from NASA.

And immoderate fortunate observers volition beryllium capable to spot Lucy from Earth, says NASA.

The asteroid-hopping spacecraft volition beryllium disposable from occidental Australia astatine astir 6:55 AM EST. But it’ll walk retired of presumption aft a fewer minutes. At 7:26 AM EST, it should beryllium disposable successful the occidental United States – assuming the skies are wide and sky-gazers person a decent brace of binoculars.

Coming truthful adjacent to the Earth volition necessitate the spacecraft to navigate an country dense with satellites and debris. NASA is implementing peculiar procedures to forestall Lucy from knocking into thing connected its journey.

“The Lucy squad has prepared 2 antithetic maneuvers,” said Coralie Adam, the squad main for the Lucy lawman navigation squad from KinetX Aerospace, successful the release. “If the squad detects that Lucy is astatine hazard of colliding with a outer oregon portion of debris, past – 12 hours earlier the closest attack to Earth – the spacecraft volition execute 1 of these, altering the clip of closest attack by either 2 oregon 4 seconds.

“This is simply a tiny correction, but it is capable to debar a perchance catastrophic collision.”

The 12-year Lucy ngo launched successful October 2021. The mission’s extremity is to research the Trojan asteroid swarms that orbit Jupiter. The asteroids person ne'er been straight observed before; the representation supra shows an illustration of Lucy approaching 1 of the asteroids. But if each goes according to plan, Lucy volition supply the archetypal high-resolution images of the asteroids.

The spacecraft volition plaything by Earth a full of 3 times during its mission. Coming into Earth’s orbit helps springiness Lucy a boost it needs to proceed connected its path.

“The past clip we saw the spacecraft, it was being enclosed successful the payload fairing successful Florida,” said Hal Levison, main researcher for Lucy astatine the Southwest Research Institute’s Boulder, Colorado office, referring to a protective chemoreceptor cone utilized during launches. “It is breathtaking that we volition beryllium capable to basal present successful Colorado and spot the spacecraft again.

“And this clip Lucy volition beryllium successful the sky.”