The encounter with Donaldjohanson won't be Lucy's first visit to an asteroid. Having launched on Oct. 16, 2021, Lucy encountered the asteroid Dinkinesh and its moon, Selam, in November of 2023.

More information: Simone Marchi et al, A Pre-flyby View on the Origin of Asteroid Donaldjohanson, a Target of the NASA Lucy Mission, The Planetary Science Journal (2025). DOI: 10.3847/PSJ/adb4f4 ...

The first was a flyby of the asteroid Dinkinesh on Nov. 1, 2023. This Sunday, Lucy was expected to fly past her second target, the asteroid Donaldjohanson.

Learn more about the Lucy mission "fly past 52246 Donaldjohanson -NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Credit: NASA’s Goddard ...

Asteroid Donaldjohanson is named for anthropologist Donald Johanson, who discovered the fossilized skeleton—called "Lucy"—of a human ancestor. NASA's Lucy mission is named for the fossil.

NASA's Lucy spacecraft has captured the first-ever view of asteroid Donaldjohanson. It was reported by NASA the spacecraft’s ...

NASA's Lucy spacecraft flew about 600 miles above an asteroid named Donaldjohanson on Easter Sunday, sending back the first close-ups of this oblong, potato-like object believed to be about 150 ...

Donaldjohanson is not the last asteroid Lucy will fly by, but it’s also not the first. The mission flew by the small asteroid Dinkinesh in November 2023—an itsy-bitsy asteroid at just 0.5 ...

A NASA spacecraft is traveling to the most mysterious asteroids in the solar system. On the way there, it snapped images of the curious, elongated asteroid dubbed "Donaldjohanson." On April 20 ...

The Lucy spacecraft just got its first good look at the main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson as the NASA mission prepares to explore the Trojan asteroids as far out as Jupiter. Donaldjohanson is not ...

How old is asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson (DJ), which is about to be studied by NASA’s Lucy spacecraft in an upcoming flyby on April 20, 2025? This is what a recent study published in The Planetary ...

Asteroid Donaldjohanson is named after Donald Johanson, the American paleoanthropologist who uncovered the skeletal remains of Lucy, one of humanity's oldest known ancestors.