Lucy Mission Search Plans for Activity around Its Jovian Trojan Flyby Targets
Activity in small bodies, defined here as the episodic or continuous release of material, was long thought to be exclusively a behavior of comets, but it has since been discovered in some centaurs, main-belt asteroids, and near-Earth asteroids. To date, however, no activity has been discovered on Jo...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | The Planetary Science Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/PSJ/ade707 |
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| author | S. Alan Stern Carly Howett Neil Dello Russo Harold A. Weaver James F. Bell III Dennis Reuter Amy Simon Hannah Kaplan Keith Noll John Spencer Simone Marchi Hal Levison |
| author_facet | S. Alan Stern Carly Howett Neil Dello Russo Harold A. Weaver James F. Bell III Dennis Reuter Amy Simon Hannah Kaplan Keith Noll John Spencer Simone Marchi Hal Levison |
| author_sort | S. Alan Stern |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Activity in small bodies, defined here as the episodic or continuous release of material, was long thought to be exclusively a behavior of comets, but it has since been discovered in some centaurs, main-belt asteroids, and near-Earth asteroids. To date, however, no activity has been discovered on Jovian trojan asteroids, the target of NASA’s Lucy Discovery Program mission. Although Lucy was originally conceived without studies of or searches for trojan activity, it was realized in 2016–2017 that the spacecraft and scientific payload aboard Lucy could provide unique and meaningful constraints or detections on activity in these trojans. Here we describe how the Lucy mission will search for such activity using (i) its terminal tracking navigation camera to search for wide-field coma scattered light, (ii) its Lucy Long Range Reconnaissance Imager narrow-angle camera to also search for scattered light from any coma or jets, and (iii) its Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera imager to search for CN emission (a common activity tracer species in comets). Sensitivity estimates for each of those measurements are discussed below. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-3c1be77415e347c28dfd91b9a4d97ef4 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2632-3338 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Planetary Science Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-3c1be77415e347c28dfd91b9a4d97ef42025-08-20T03:32:36ZengIOP PublishingThe Planetary Science Journal2632-33382025-01-016717710.3847/PSJ/ade707Lucy Mission Search Plans for Activity around Its Jovian Trojan Flyby TargetsS. Alan Stern0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5018-7537Carly Howett1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1869-4947Neil Dello Russo2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8379-7304Harold A. Weaver3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0951-7762James F. Bell III4Dennis Reuter5Amy Simon6https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4641-6186Hannah Kaplan7https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6562-9462Keith Noll8https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6013-9384John Spencer9https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4452-8109Simone Marchi10https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2548-3291Hal Levison11https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5847-8099Southwest Research Institute , TX, USAPlanetary Science Institute , AZ, USA; University of Oxford , UKJohns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, MD, USAJohns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, MD, USAArizona State University , AZ, USANASA Goddard Space Flight Center, MD, USANASA Goddard Space Flight Center, MD, USANASA Goddard Space Flight Center, MD, USANASA Goddard Space Flight Center, MD, USASouthwest Research Institute , TX, USASouthwest Research Institute , TX, USASouthwest Research Institute , TX, USAActivity in small bodies, defined here as the episodic or continuous release of material, was long thought to be exclusively a behavior of comets, but it has since been discovered in some centaurs, main-belt asteroids, and near-Earth asteroids. To date, however, no activity has been discovered on Jovian trojan asteroids, the target of NASA’s Lucy Discovery Program mission. Although Lucy was originally conceived without studies of or searches for trojan activity, it was realized in 2016–2017 that the spacecraft and scientific payload aboard Lucy could provide unique and meaningful constraints or detections on activity in these trojans. Here we describe how the Lucy mission will search for such activity using (i) its terminal tracking navigation camera to search for wide-field coma scattered light, (ii) its Lucy Long Range Reconnaissance Imager narrow-angle camera to also search for scattered light from any coma or jets, and (iii) its Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera imager to search for CN emission (a common activity tracer species in comets). Sensitivity estimates for each of those measurements are discussed below.https://doi.org/10.3847/PSJ/ade707Jupiter trojansSmall Solar System bodiesComa dustNeutral coma gases |
| spellingShingle | S. Alan Stern Carly Howett Neil Dello Russo Harold A. Weaver James F. Bell III Dennis Reuter Amy Simon Hannah Kaplan Keith Noll John Spencer Simone Marchi Hal Levison Lucy Mission Search Plans for Activity around Its Jovian Trojan Flyby Targets The Planetary Science Journal Jupiter trojans Small Solar System bodies Coma dust Neutral coma gases |
| title | Lucy Mission Search Plans for Activity around Its Jovian Trojan Flyby Targets |
| title_full | Lucy Mission Search Plans for Activity around Its Jovian Trojan Flyby Targets |
| title_fullStr | Lucy Mission Search Plans for Activity around Its Jovian Trojan Flyby Targets |
| title_full_unstemmed | Lucy Mission Search Plans for Activity around Its Jovian Trojan Flyby Targets |
| title_short | Lucy Mission Search Plans for Activity around Its Jovian Trojan Flyby Targets |
| title_sort | lucy mission search plans for activity around its jovian trojan flyby targets |
| topic | Jupiter trojans Small Solar System bodies Coma dust Neutral coma gases |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/PSJ/ade707 |
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