The New Southwest Analysis Institute-led modelling exhibits that Essential Belt Asteroid (52246) Donald Johansson might have been shaped round 150 million years in the past when the bigger pro-asteroids fell aside. Its orbital and spin properties have undergone main evolution ever since. When NASA’s Lucy spacecraft flew at this roughly three miles broad house lock on April 20, 2025, the collected information might present impartial perception into such processes primarily based on its form, floor geology and crater historical past.
“Primarily based on ground-based observations, Donald Johansson seems to be like a particular object,” mentioned Dr. Swri, PhD, Simone Marti, PhD, who’s the assistant principal investigator of the SWRI-led Lucy mission and lead creator of the examine revealed within the Planetary Science Journal. “Understanding the formation of Donald Johansson helps clarify its properties.”
“The information exhibits that it may be very lengthy and slower rotors, in all probability resulting from thermal torque, which has slowed the spin over time,” added David Voclericki, a Prague professor at Charles College and a co-author of the examine.
Lucy’s goal is a standard kind of asteroid, composed of silicate rocks, and probably containing clay and natural matter. The brand new paper exhibits that Donald Johansson is probably going a member of the Eligon Collision Asteroids. The Eligon Collision Asteroids are a bunch of comparable orbital asteroids created when the bigger dad or mum asteroids broke. The household comes from the interior foremost belt not too removed from the spring supply of Earth asteroids (101955) Bennu and (162173) Ryugu, respectively, visited by NASA’s Osiris-Rex and Jaxa’s Hayabusa2 missions, respectively.
“In the meanwhile, Donald Johansson’s traits look very totally different to Benne and Ryug, so we are able to barely anticipate a flyby. However we might reveal an sudden connection,” Marqui mentioned.
Donald Johansson is known as after a paleontologist who found Lucy, an early human fossilized skeleton found in Ethiopia in 1974. Simply as Lucy’s fossils supplied distinctive perception into the origins of humanity, Lucy Mission guarantees to revolutionize information of the origins of humanity’s residence world. Donald Johansson is the one asteroid with the title that has not but been visited whereas the title nonetheless lives in it.
“Lucy is an formidable NASA mission and plans to go to asteroids for 12 years, mentioned Dr. Hal Levison of Swri, the mission’s lead researcher. “The encounter with asteroids on the primary belt gives a close-up view of those our bodies, in addition to engineering assessments of the spacecraft’s revolutionary navigation system to review the Trojan horses earlier than the primary occasion. These relics are fossils within the planetary formation course of and maintain important clues to get rid of the historical past of our photo voltaic system.”
Lucy’s lead researcher is predicated in Boulder, Colorado, the Southwest Analysis Institute, headquartered in San Antonio. NASA’s Goddard House Flight Heart in Greenbelt, Maryland presents mission administration, techniques engineering, and full security and mission ensures. Lockheed Martin House in Littleton, Colorado constructed the spacecraft. Lucy is the thirteenth mission in NASA’s Discovery Program. NASA’s Marshall House Flight Heart in Huntsville, Alabama manages the Washington company’s Division of Science Mission Discovery Program.
