dinkinesh

2023 has been a ground-breaking year for NASA. From receiving asteroid sample to launching Psyche spacecraft, the US space agency achieved various milestones. As the year ends, we have compiled a list of 10 achievements of NASA.10 top achievements of NASA in 2023:1. This year NASA Astronaut Frank Rubio achieved a historic milestone as the first American to spend over a year in space, showcasing NASA's commitment to prolonged human space exploration. 2. OSIRIS-REx successfully deposited Bennu asteroid sample in the Utah…

Lucy will explore the Jupiter Trojan asteroids – thought to be “fossils of planet formation.” Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight CenterThe first asteroid to be visited by NASA’s Lucy mission now has a name. The International Astronomical Union has approved the name (152830) Dinkinesh for the tiny main belt asteroid that the Lucy spacecraft will encounter on November 1, 2023. “Dinkinesh,” or ድንቅነሽ in Amharic, is the Ethiopian name for the human-ancestor fossil, also known as Lucy, which was found in that country and…

In October 2021, the NASA spacecraft Lucy took off for its 12-year journey to ten different asteroids with a focus towards the Jupiter trojans, a large group of asteroids that share the planet Jupiter's orbit around the Sun. This is the first time NASA has conducted a mission to study these far-off asteroids. But before it reaches the trojans, first it will travel to two asteroids located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. And as it races to meet the first asteroid in its path, astronomers have finally…