This week’s lunar eclipse was not only observed from Earth and the International Space Station – it was also observed from 64 million miles (100 million kilometers) from Earth by the Lucy spacecraft. Lucy, an unmanned spacecraft from NASA and the Southwest Research Institute on its way to study Trojan asteroids in Jupiter’s orbit, got a view of the lunar eclipse on May 15 and managed to take three-hour photos that have been turned into video. With a delay:
The images were taken using Lucy’s L’LORRI tool, which captures high-resolution black-and-white images. A total of 86 images were needed, which were combined together to create a delay.
Although Lucy is far from Earth, the instrument was sensitive enough to see the moon as it passed into the earth’s shadow and was hidden in darkness for a short time.
“Although total lunar eclipses are not uncommon – they happen every year or so – it’s not so common when you have the chance to observe them from a whole new angle,” Lucy’s chief researcher, Hal Lewison, said in a statement. “When the team realized that Lucy had a chance to observe this lunar eclipse as part of the instrument’s calibration process, everyone was incredibly excited.
This illustration shows the Lucy spacecraft passing one of the Trojan asteroids near Jupiter. Southwestern Research Institute
Lucy was close to Earth as she traveled to Earth after its launch in October 2021 to fly in October 2022. Passing close to a massive body like Earth, the spacecraft could receive a gravity-assisted boost to help. to take him to his distant destination. During their journey, the team can use its instruments, such as its four cameras, to observe phenomena such as lunar eclipses, but this requires a bit of creative planning, as these instruments are not primarily designed for this.
“Taking these images was really an incredible team effort. The instrumentation, guidance, navigation and scientific operations teams had to work together to collect this data, with the Earth and the Moon in the same frame, ”said Acting Deputy Principal Investigator John Spencer. “And all this had to be done while operating the spacecraft in a very difficult environment.
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