Why NASA Launched a Robotic Archaeologist Named Lucy.

 

Matthew Presant

Mr. Ippolito

Chemistry

10-20-2021

Brown, David W. “Why NASA Launched a Robotic Archaeologist Named Lucy.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 15 Oct. 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/article/nasa-lucy-trojans-asteroids.html. 

For my current event review, I reviewed the New York Times article “Why NASA Launched a Robotic Archaeologist Named Lucy” by David W. Brown. The main idea of this article is that a space probe named Lucy was launched on Saturday to study groups of asteroids along Jupiter’s orbit. Lucy is a solar-powered spacecraft which will do several things such as take pictures, and collect data on the rotation of asteroids. Scientists will study these images for color distribution (which can help determine what the rock is made of). Lucy will also take thermal measurements and use infrared spectra. The purpose of these are to understand the composition of the asteroid and look at the presence of minerals in the asteroids. The overall purpose of this mission is to learn more about how the planets got into their current orbits, and will ultimately help to clear the fog on the topic of how life started on earth. The length of Lucy’s mission will be 12 years, and through which Lucy will study a total of 7 “Trojan” asteroids. The first asteroid that Lucy will encounter will be Donaldjohanson in 2025. The first trojan asteroid encounter will be in 2027 with 3548 Eurybates. “Trojan Swarms” represent the unexplored asteroids that exist in our solar system. (They were first discovered over 100 years ago and were named after heroes of Homer's Iliad). While we have discovered a number of asteroids including some close to earth with NASA’s OSIRIS-REX, and Japan’s Hayabusa missions, we haven’t yet examined any in Jupiter’s region. According to Bill Nelson the administrator of NASA, “‘We have never gone this far to study asteroids’” (Brown), To date, we know of roughly 10,000 Trojan Asteroids near Jupiter. Lucy is a very important space probe and will answer many questions relating to how planets got to where they are. The article states, “Thirty years ago, the concept of planetary formation was much more orderly than it is today. A star formed in the center of a rotating disc of protoplanetary material. Gradually, the material condensed and collected into eight planets in simple orbits (as well as Pluto)” (Brown). The issue with this statement is that many theorists including planetary scientist Hal Levison, couldn’t see how Neptune and Uranus got into the orbits they’re in now. Eventually, a model called the Nice model was created which suggested that these two planets formed closer to the sun and that the destabilization of Jupiter and Saturn changed the layout of much of our solar system. Some asteroids are still in areas around Jupiter, and according to the article Dr. Levison said, “‘One of the surprising things about the Trojan population is that they are physically very different from one another but occupy a really small region of space...That diversity in that small region is telling us something important about the early evolution of the solar system’” (Brown). Overall, with the help of Lucy, scientists should be able to prove this model and learn more about our solar system, and ultimately how we came to exist. 

This will have a large effect on society because it should tell us much about how the planets got into their orbits and may support the Nice model, or suggest something radically different about the progression of our solar system. The article states, “‘My hope,’ Dr. Levison said, ‘will be to look at the current models of solar system formation — including my own work — and say: Nope, this is all wrong. It wasn’t that simple, and we have to start again’” (Brown). In addition, if we see evidence of organic molecules on asteroids with the use of infrared spectra, we might be able to determine whether asteroids had the chemicals necessary to put life on earth. That would totally change everything and tell us enormous amounts about how we got to now.

The article was very well written and well structured. For example, it did a good job of covering everything relating to this topic that someone would want to know, including the dates of when the spacecraft will encounter the asteroids and what this mission will mean for scientists. It also had plenty of information from experts. However, this article did have some weaknesses. For example the article didn’t get into much detail about the building of the probe or how much it cost, etc. It could’ve included more information like that. As a whole, it was a well written article.