Space probe Lucy embarked on journey to asteroids near Jupiter | Abroad

NASA reports that the rocket carrying the probe, named Lucy, has lifted off from Cape Canaveral launch site. The probe now has a complicated journey ahead that will take years. The asteroids orbit the Sun in the same orbit as Jupiter, located 530 million kilometers from the Sun. That’s about five times as far away as Earth.

The rocks are divided into two groups called swarms. One half flies ahead of Jupiter, the other half flies after Jupiter. Lucy has to figure out what they are made of, among other things. That can tell something about the dust cloud from which the sun, the earth, the other planets and all moons once formed.

Not only the mission of the probe is a first. This also applies to the way in which the spacecraft is supplied with energy. The Lucy has huge solar panels to generate electricity. It is the first time that a probe so far away uses solar energy. The predecessors ran on nuclear energy.

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