Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

By Jason Schreiner, Planetarium Coordinator

Image Credit: NASA

NASA’s Lucy mission is the first to explore a diverse population of small bodies known as the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. These precious “diamonds” are remnants of our early solar system, leading and following the giant planet in two huge swarms, as they all orbit around the Sun along the same path. Over its twelve-year primary mission, Lucy will explore a record breaking number of asteroids, flying by one main belt asteroid and seven Trojan asteroids.  

"Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds"

Picture yourself in a boat on a river

With tangerine trees and marmalade skies

Image credit: ULA

The marmalade skies of Cape Canaveral. 

Image credit: ULA

Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly

Lucy launches aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
on October 16th, 2021 at 5:34 a.m.  Video credit: Jason Schreiner/MOAS. Editing: Seth Mayo/MOAS.

A girl with kaleidoscope eyes

Lucy’s “kaleidoscope eyes,” the cameras that can capture high resolution images, help navigate, take temperature readings,
determine the asteroids’ composition, and search for rings and tiny moons. Image credit: ULA

The Lucy Thermal Emission Spectrometer (L'TES). Image credit: NASA/ASU

Cellophane flowers of yellow and green

Towering over your head

Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes

And she's gone

Lucy unfurls her towering, 24-foot “cellophane flower” solar panels...and she’s gone!
Video credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab

Lucy in the sky with diamonds

Lucy in the sky with diamonds

Lucy in the sky with diamonds

Aaaaahhhhh...