Mondo Knows Facts

Lucy is touring Jupiter's Trojan asteroids

The mission visits ancient bodies sharing Jupiter's orbit in two clouds Lucy launched in 2021 and swung past Earth for gravity assists before heading for the Trojan asteroids, which gather ahead of and behind Jupiter. These dark bodies may preserve material from the outer solar system's formation. The mission is named for the fossil hominin skeleton because the asteroids are expected to be similarly ancient relics. It sits in Mondo's space collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

NASA Science

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Tags: lucy, trojans, asteroids

Lucy is touring Jupiter's Trojan asteroids: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?
The mission visits ancient bodies sharing Jupiter's orbit in two clouds. The figure is taken from NASA Science, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a space fact?
Yes. It sits on the Space shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?
The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.