3 min learnNew DelhiUp to date: Jun 25, 2026 06:22 PM IST
Nasa‘s Lucy spacecraft has noticed an asteroid formed, oddly, like a peanut which wobbles in house as an alternative of easily spinning on a single axis.
The asteroid, named Donaldjohanson, additionally carries attainable proof of historic water, making it vital for understanding the mysterious early historical past of our photo voltaic system, based on Nasa’s web site.
Lucy collected its first close-up pictures and knowledge on Donaldjohanson on April 20, 2025, passing simply 960 km from the asteroid, and a have a look at the info revealed that this asteroid has a two-axis rotation, not like most asteroids and planets, which normally spin merely round a single axis.
Scientists additionally acquired their first clear have a look at the asteroid’s distinctive peanut form, together with the craters and ridges protecting its floor.
Traces of water
The spacecraft recorded the signatures of iron-rich clay minerals on the floor. Nasa scientists mentioned these clays shaped within the distant previous, when liquid water was probably current.
The scientists additionally identified that the iron in clays tends to get changed by different components, akin to magnesium, when water is current for a protracted time frame.
This sample was seen in two different asteroids – Bennu and Ryugu – the place magnesium-rich clays have been found, suggesting that these asteroids have been uncovered to water for an prolonged interval, probably lasting hundreds of thousands of years, again once they have been nonetheless a part of a lot bigger guardian our bodies.
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Why the asteroid slowed down
Donaldjohanson’s peculiar rotation is probably going attributable to a delicate impact of photo voltaic heating, which is named the YORP impact.
As daylight warms the asteroid’s floor, every a part of it possible radiates warmth again as infrared mild. Consequently, this radiation creates a tiny recoil power on the floor, and because the asteroid is just not symmetrical in form, the uneven forces add as much as produce a web twist that may alter its rotation over time.
The YORP impact can both gradual an asteroid’s spin down or velocity it up.
About Nasa’s Lucy spacecraft
Lucy’s principal investigator relies on the Boulder, Colorado, department of Southwest Analysis Institute, which is headquartered in San Antonio.
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The spacecraft itself was constructed by Lockheed Martin House in Littleton, Colorado.
Lucy is the thirteenth mission in Nasa’s Discovery Program, which is managed by the Marshall House Flight Middle in Huntsville, Alabama, on behalf of the company’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
About asteroid Donaldjohanson
The asteroid is called after anthropologist Donald Johanson, who found the fossilised skeleton known as “Lucy.”
Donaldjohanson was shaped after a violent collision 155 million years in the past, and is positioned in the principle asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
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Lucy acquired a detailed have a look at asteroid Donaldjohanson because it made its method towards the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. The spacecraft handed inside roughly 600 miles, or 960 kilometres, of the asteroid through the encounter.
(This text has been curated by Paramita Datta, who’s an intern with The Indian Categorical)