Harold F. Levison
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View article: Shape Reconstruction and Rotation State of Asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson from Lucy Imaging and Ground-Based Photometry
Shape Reconstruction and Rotation State of Asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson from Lucy Imaging and Ground-Based Photometry Open
On April 20, 2025, while crossing the Main Asteroid Belt, the NASA Lucy mission—en route to the Jupiter Trojan regions—encountered its second cruise target, the C-type asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson.During the fly-by, the L’LORRI instrume…
View article: Interior and gravity characterization of the C-type asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson seen by NASA’s Lucy flyby
Interior and gravity characterization of the C-type asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson seen by NASA’s Lucy flyby Open
NASA’s Lucy [1] successfully flew by the C-type asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson [2] on April 20, 2025 [3]. The asteroid exhibited unique topographic and geological features [4-6]. While the imaged area was limited to the illuminated hemisp…
View article: The Lucy Encounter with asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson - An Overview
The Lucy Encounter with asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson - An Overview Open
On April 20, 2025 NASA's Lucy mission performed a flyby of the main belt asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson, hereafter DJ. Lucy is a NASA Discovery-class mission to study primitive bodies near both the L4 and L5 Lagrange points with Jupiter -…
View article: (52246) Donaldjohanson and the Architecture of Bilobed Small Bodies
(52246) Donaldjohanson and the Architecture of Bilobed Small Bodies Open
The Lucy spacecraft flew by the Main Belt asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson, hereafter DJ, on April 20, 2025. Images obtained during the flyby show DJ to be an elongated object, about 8 km long with an axis ratio greater than 2 to 1, consist…
View article: Compositional analysis of (52246) Donaldjohanson from the Lucy flyby
Compositional analysis of (52246) Donaldjohanson from the Lucy flyby Open
The NASA Lucy mission was designed to provide the first reconnaissance of Jupiter Trojan asteroids. These primitive bodies hold important clues to the origin and evolution of the Solar System. The Lucy spacecraft is currently en route to i…
View article: Lightcurve of Asteroid (52246)Donaldjohanson from the Lucy Spacecraft’s Observations
Lightcurve of Asteroid (52246)Donaldjohanson from the Lucy Spacecraft’s Observations Open
The Lucy Mission is a NASA Discovery class mission to study the Trojan asteroids. Its targets are the asteroids Eurybates (Aug. 2027), Polymele (Sep. 2027), Leucus (Apr. 2028), Orus (Nov. 2028) and the Patroclus – Menoetius binary (Mar. 20…
View article: Albedo Features on (52246) Donaldjohanson, from Lucy L’LORRI Observations
Albedo Features on (52246) Donaldjohanson, from Lucy L’LORRI Observations Open
During its April 20th 2025 flyby of the approximately 8 km long C-type asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson, the Lucy spacecraft obtained several hundred spatially resolved images of the target with the panchromatic Lucy Long Range Reconnaissan…
View article: Uncertainty estimations for the mass determination of the Lucy mission target asteroids using Doppler tracking data
Uncertainty estimations for the mass determination of the Lucy mission target asteroids using Doppler tracking data Open
The Lucy spacecraft was launched in 2021. After two gravity assists at Earth and the flybys at binary main-belt asteroid (152830) Dinkinesh in November 2023 and just recently at (52246) Donaldjohanson in the asteroid belt the spacecraft is…
View article: Resolved Color of Main-Belt Asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson as seen by NASA’s Lucy Mission
Resolved Color of Main-Belt Asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson as seen by NASA’s Lucy Mission Open
Introduction: On the 20th of April 2025, NASA’s Lucy mission [1] flew by the C-type main-belt asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson (hereafter DJ). The encounter’s goal was to test the spacecraft and instruments during an observation sequence co…
View article: NASA’S Lucy Mission to Trojan Asteroids: Unraveling the History of the Outer Solar System
NASA’S Lucy Mission to Trojan Asteroids: Unraveling the History of the Outer Solar System Open
Lucy is a NASA Discovery-class mission to send a highly capable and robust spacecraft to investigate primitive bodies near both the L4 and L5 Lagrange points with Jupiter; the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. This heretofore unexplored population…
View article: Thermal-IR Observations of (152830) Dinkinesh during the Lucy Mission Flyby
Thermal-IR Observations of (152830) Dinkinesh during the Lucy Mission Flyby Open
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft flew by the main-belt asteroid (152830) Dinkinesh on 2023 November 1, providing a test of its instruments and systems prior to its encounters with the Jupiter Trojans and enabling an opportunity for scientific invest…
View article: Lucy Mission Search Plans for Activity around Its Jovian Trojan Flyby Targets
Lucy Mission Search Plans for Activity around Its Jovian Trojan Flyby Targets Open
Activity in small bodies, defined here as the episodic or continuous release of material, was long thought to be exclusively a behavior of comets, but it has since been discovered in some centaurs, main-belt asteroids, and near-Earth aster…
View article: Thermal Infrared Spectra of the Moon: Results From the Lucy Thermal Emission Spectrometer Observations
Thermal Infrared Spectra of the Moon: Results From the Lucy Thermal Emission Spectrometer Observations Open
The Lucy Thermal Emission Spectrometer (L’TES) instrument acquired hyperspectral thermal infrared (TIR) observations of the Earth's Moon during Lucy's 2022 Earth gravity assist. L’TES covers the spectral range of 100–1,750 cm −1 (100–5.8 μ…
View article: A Spiral Structure in the Inner Oort Cloud
A Spiral Structure in the Inner Oort Cloud Open
As the Galactic tide acts to decouple bodies from the scattered disk it creates a spiral structure in physical space that is roughly 15,000 au in length. The spiral is long-lived and persists in the inner Oort cloud to the present time. He…
View article: Mass Determination of the Lucy Mission target asteroids using radio tracking data
Mass Determination of the Lucy Mission target asteroids using radio tracking data Open
The LUCY spacecraft was launched in 2021. After two gravity assists at Earth and the flybys at binary main-belt asteroid (152830) Dinkinesh in November 2023 and just recently at (52246) Donaldjohanson in the asteroid belt the spacecraft is…
View article: A Pre-flyby View on the Origin of Asteroid Donaldjohanson, a Target of the NASA Lucy Mission
A Pre-flyby View on the Origin of Asteroid Donaldjohanson, a Target of the NASA Lucy Mission Open
The NASA Lucy mission is scheduled to fly by the main-belt asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson on 2025 April 20. Donaldjohanson (DJ hereafter) is a member of the primitive (C-type class) Erigone collisional asteroid family located in the inner…
View article: Lucy L′Ralph In-flight Calibration and Results at (152830) Dinkinesh
Lucy L′Ralph In-flight Calibration and Results at (152830) Dinkinesh Open
The L’Ralph instrument is a key component of NASA’s Lucy mission, intended to provide spectral image data of multiple Jupiter Trojans. The instrument operates from ∼0.35 to 4 μ m using two focal plane assemblies: a 350–950 nm multispectral…
View article: Shape model of asteroid (152830) Dinkinesh from LUCY imagery
Shape model of asteroid (152830) Dinkinesh from LUCY imagery Open
Introduction: In October 2021, the Lucy space probe launched its mission to explore a series of Jupiter Trojans. Close flybys will be used to investigate and determine the shape, diversity, surface composition and geology of the objects [1…
View article: The Dynamical State of the Dinkinesh - Selam Binary
The Dynamical State of the Dinkinesh - Selam Binary Open
The Lucy spacecraft encountered the Main Belt asteroid (152830) Dinkinesh on 01 November 2023 revealing it to be a binary system with a first-of-its-kind contact binary secondary, now named Selam. However, despite the novelty of Selam̵…
View article: An overview of NASA Lucy misson’s encounter with the main belt asteroid Dinkinesh
An overview of NASA Lucy misson’s encounter with the main belt asteroid Dinkinesh Open
On November 1, 2023, Lucy passed within 430 km of the smallest Main Belt asteroid yet to be encountered by a spacecraft, (152830) Dinkinesh. This target was a late addition to the Lucy mission [1] and was intended primarly as an in-flight …
View article: The Bombardment History of the Giant Planet Satellites
The Bombardment History of the Giant Planet Satellites Open
The origins of the giant planet satellites are debated, with scenarios including formation from a protoplanetary disk, sequential assembly from massive rings, and recent accretion after major satellite–satellite collisions. Here, we test t…
View article: Trojan Asteroid Mass Determination using the Radio-Science Experiment onboard the LUCY Mission
Trojan Asteroid Mass Determination using the Radio-Science Experiment onboard the LUCY Mission Open
The LUCY spacecraft was launched in 2021. The main objective of the NASA mission is to characterize several trojan asteroids. These outer solar system asteroids are located in the Lagrange points L4 and L5 of the Jupiter-Sun system.The fir…
View article: The Discovery of a Contact-Binary Satellite of the Asteroid (152830) Dinkinesh by the Lucy Mission
The Discovery of a Contact-Binary Satellite of the Asteroid (152830) Dinkinesh by the Lucy Mission Open
On November 1, 2023, Lucy passed within 431 km of the smallest Main Belt asteroid yet to be encountered by a spacecraft, (152830) Dinkinesh. This target was a late addition to the Lucy mission \cite{Levison+2021} and was intended primarily…
View article: Lucy Observations of the DART Impact Event
Lucy Observations of the DART Impact Event Open
The Lucy LOng Range Reconnaissance Imager (L’LORRI) took 1549 images of the Didymos–Dimorphos binary system, starting 12 hr before the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) impact event on 2022 September 26 and ending 24 hr after it. The…
View article: A Crater Chronology for the Jupiter’s Trojan Asteroids
A Crater Chronology for the Jupiter’s Trojan Asteroids Open
We present a new crater chronology for Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids. This tool can be used to interpret the collisional history of the bodies observed by NASA’s Lucy mission. The Lucy mission will visit a total of six Trojan asteroids: Euryb…
View article: L’Ralph: A Visible/Infrared Spectral Imager for the Lucy Mission to the Trojans
L’Ralph: A Visible/Infrared Spectral Imager for the Lucy Mission to the Trojans Open
The Lucy Mission to the Trojan asteroids in Jupiter’s orbit carries an instrument named L’Ralph, a visible/near infrared multi-spectral imager and a short wavelength infrared hyperspectral imager. It is one of the core instruments on Lucy,…
View article: Trojan Asteroid Satellites, Rings, and Activity
Trojan Asteroid Satellites, Rings, and Activity Open
The Lucy mission will encounter five Jupiter Trojans during its mission with three of the five already known to be multiple systems. These include a near-equal-mass binary, a small and widely separated satellite, and one intermediate-size …
View article: The Collisional Evolution of the Primordial Kuiper Belt, Its Destabilized Population, and the Trojan Asteroids
The Collisional Evolution of the Primordial Kuiper Belt, Its Destabilized Population, and the Trojan Asteroids Open
The tumultuous early era of outer solar system evolution culminated when Neptune migrated across the primordial Kuiper Belt (PKB) and triggered a dynamical instability among the giant planets. This event led to the ejection of ∼99.9% of th…
View article: The Collisional Evolution of the Primordial Kuiper Belt, Its Destabilized Population, and the Trojan Asteroids
The Collisional Evolution of the Primordial Kuiper Belt, Its Destabilized Population, and the Trojan Asteroids Open
The tumultuous early era of outer solar system evolution culminated when Neptune migrated across the primordial Kuiper belt (PKB) and triggered a dynamical instability among the giant planets. This event led to the ejection of approximatel…