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Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallVisiting several asteroids lets a spacecraft compare worlds that may preserve different clues to the solar system’s beginnings. NASA’s Lucy mission is built around that approach: it will make brief flybys of varied asteroids and small moons, measuring their geology, composition, mass, density and thermal properties. Those comparisons can help scientists test ideas about where the objects formed and how planets moved them into their present orbits—but a flyby offers less time at each target than an orbiter or sample-return mission.
Why visit more than one asteroid?
An asteroid is not necessarily representative of its neighbors. Objects in the same broad population can differ in color, size and surface composition. Those contrasts may indicate that they formed in different parts of the early solar system before being transported to their current locations as the planets formed and evolved. Comparing multiple objects gives scientists a way to test that picture across a broader range of evidence than a single visit can provide. NASA’s Lucy science goals describe this rationale for studying Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids, which share Jupiter’s orbit in stable regions ahead of and behind the planet.
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Lucy’s planned targets span a broad range of sizes and colors. NASA’s FAQ gives a size range from less than approximately 1 kilometer to around 100 kilometers in diameter; that describes Lucy’s targets, not the asteroid population as a whole. NASA’s FAQ explains that the variety makes the targets useful for comparison. No one flyby by itself can prove where an asteroid formed; the observations instead help constrain and test explanations of its origin and history.
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What can scientists compare at each asteroid?
The value of a multi-target mission is not limited to taking pictures. Lucy’s instruments and radio measurements are designed to build several kinds of evidence that can be compared from one object to another. NASA’s science goals include:
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- Shape and surface geology: Images can map an asteroid’s shape, craters, fractures, surface layers and reflectivity, helping scientists assess its surface history and relative ages of different regions.
- Color and composition: Color and infrared observations can help distinguish surface materials and map the distribution of minerals, ices and organic species. Regolith—the loose material covering a surface—also provides clues to how the body has changed.
- Mass, density and interior clues: Radio tracking can support Doppler measurements used to estimate an asteroid’s mass. Combined with other observations, mass and density provide a bulk comparison; craters, exposed layers and fractures can offer clues to subsurface structure and composition.
- Temperature and thermal behavior: Thermal measurements help characterize how an object emits heat, adding another property to compare across targets.
- Moons and rings: Searches for small companions can reveal whether an asteroid has a satellite or ring system. A moon or binary companion also adds information about the structure and history of the system.
Lucy carries L’Ralph, which combines a color camera and infrared imaging spectrometer; the high-resolution L’LORRI camera; and L’TES, a thermal emission spectrometer. Its terminal tracking cameras help follow targets and document their shapes. The instruments therefore contribute complementary evidence: images show terrain and shape, spectral observations help distinguish materials, thermal data characterize heat emission, and radio tracking supports mass estimates. NASA lists the spacecraft’s instruments and objectives in its mission FAQ.
Why fly past asteroids instead of orbiting them?
To orbit an asteroid, a spacecraft must slow down enough to be captured by it. NASA says that requires substantial rocket fuel, and repeating the maneuver at multiple targets requires still more. Lucy uses flybys to visit many objects without attempting to enter orbit around each one. NASA describes the mission as reconnaissance: its encounters gather information that can guide future exploration. NASA’s explanation of Lucy’s flyby design covers the fuel trade-off.
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The trade-off is breadth versus time at each destination. A flyby allows direct comparison among multiple bodies, but the close encounter is brief. It does not provide the prolonged observation of an orbiter, a landing, or returned samples. Lucy is not designed to orbit its targets or bring asteroid material back to Earth.
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As of NASA’s August 6, 2026 update, Lucy had used its L’LORRI camera to observe Eurybates, Polymele, Leucus and Orus in spring 2026. The team used those observations to help choose camera settings and prepare for the upcoming Trojan flybys. Close-approach lighting will differ from Earth-based views, including areas of surface shadow, so these camera tests help prepare for encounter conditions. NASA’s August 6, 2026 update describes the work.
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NASA’s mission overview describes Lucy’s itinerary as three main-belt asteroids and eight Trojan objects: five asteroids and three asteroid moons. The count distinguishes the asteroids themselves from their small moons. NASA’s FAQ lists past encounters with Dinkinesh and its satellite Selam in 2023, and Donaldjohanson in 2025, followed by these planned Trojan encounters: NASA’s mission overview gives the overall count, while its FAQ lists the itinerary.
- 2027: Eurybates and its satellite Queta; Polymele and its satellite.
- 2028: Leucus and Orus.
- 2033: The Patroclus–Menoetius binary.
These future dates reflect NASA’s published schedule and can change as the mission proceeds.
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What the comparisons can—and cannot—show
When scientists find differences in surface composition, color, geology or density across several targets, they can compare those observations with models of asteroid formation and planetary movement. A consistent pattern may support one explanation over another, but the evidence is not a direct record of every event in an object’s past. Flybys provide snapshots, so they cannot offer the continuous close study, landing analysis or sample laboratory work that other mission designs can enable.
The mission-design choice is not a contest in which one target or many targets is always better. A multi-target flyby favors breadth and comparison; an orbiter or sample-return mission can focus on extended study of a particular destination. Which approach is more useful depends on the scientific question.
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