Lucy flies by its first asteroid. This week on planetary radio.

I'm Sarah Al Ahmed of the planetary society with more of the human adventure across our solar system and beyond.

NASA's Lucy spacecraft, which is on an epic adventure to investigate Jupiter's Trojan asteroids,

passed by its first asteroid called Dinkinash.

Hal Levison and Simone Markey, the principal and deputy principal Investigators for the mission, join us this week

to discuss the surprising results and the spacecraft's health.

Then Bruce Betts, the chief scientist of the Planetary Society, joins me for What's Up and some more asteroid

awesomeness. If you love Planetary Radio and want to stay informed about the latest

space discoveries, make sure you hit that subscribe button on your favorite podcasting platform.

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Cosmos and are placed within it.

NASA's Lucy Mission launched in October 2021 on a journey to explore Jupiter's Trojan

asteroids, a group of celestial bodies that share Jupiter's orbit around the Sun.

To understand why these asteroids stay in place relative to Jupiter,

we need to talk about Lagrange points.

Most space fans have heard of them in the context of science fiction,

or perhaps when you're learning more about the placement of

space telescopes like JWST.

Lagrange points are like sweet spots in space where the gravitational forces of two large bodies,

like the Sun and Jupiter, balance with the

orbital motion of a smaller object, like an asteroid.

There are five of these points called L1 to L5.

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