For this number of photos, Lucy’s Instrument Pointing Platform was pointed close to the constellation Orion, and the T2CAM discipline included the Rosette Nebula. The crimson, blue, and yellow bins point out the frames of the T2CAM, MVIC, and L’LORRI photos, respectively. Credit: SwRI; 2008 file picture of night time sky as seen over Fajada Butte in New Mexico, courtesy National Parks Service
On Feb. 14, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft, which is within the first few months of its journey to the Trojan asteroids, obtained a sequence of calibration photos with its 4 visible-light cameras. The first take a look at photos had been taken in November 2021, shortly after Lucy’s Oct. 16, 2021, launch, however the February take a look at was way more in depth. Lucy used its Instrument Pointing Platform to level at 11 completely different star fields to check digital camera efficiency and sensitivity, in addition to the spacecraft’s skill to level precisely in numerous instructions.
The 4 cameras are the dual Terminal Tracking Cameras (T2CAM), the Multicolor Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC), and the Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (L’LORRI). The T2CAM cameras have a large discipline of view, 11 levels by 8.2 levels, and are primarily used to robotically lock onto and monitor the Trojan asteroids throughout Lucy’s shut flybys, making certain that the spacecraft’s different devices are pointed on the goal. MVIC, a part of the L’Ralph instrument, is a higher-resolution shade scanning digital camera that may scan its 8.3-degree-tall discipline of view throughout as extensive a swath as desired, very like the panoramas taken by a cell phone digital camera. L’LORRI is a high-resolution monochromatic telephoto digital camera with a slender 0.29-degree-square discipline of view and can receive Lucy’s most detailed photos of its asteroid targets.
The take a look at didn’t embody Lucy’s infrared spectrometer LEISA (additionally a part of the L’Ralph instrument) or its temperature mapping L’TES instrument, which requires close-up planetary targets to acquire helpful knowledge.
With an publicity time of 10 seconds, the Rosette Nebula is simply seen within the decrease proper of heart of the T2CAM body. Credit: NASA/Goddard/SwRI
The faintest seen stars on this uncooked L’LORRI picture are roughly seventeenth magnitude, 50,000 occasions fainter than the unaided human eye can see. Image brightness ranges have been adjusted to reinforce visibility of faint stars. The publicity time was 10 seconds. Keen observers will discover that the celebrities are barely elongated on this comparatively unprocessed picture; the Lucy group has strategies to mitigate this impact, and the optical high quality is adequate for undertaking the science targets of the mission. Credit: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL
NASA’s Lucy within the cleanroom
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NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
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Checking in on the cameras of NASA’s asteroids-bound Lucy spacecraft (2022, April 11)
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