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By NASA
The IAU (International Astronomical Union), an international non-governmental research organization and global naming authority for celestial objects, has approved official names for features on Donaldjohanson, an asteroid NASA’s Lucy spacecraft visited on April 20. In a nod to the fossilized inspiration for the names of the asteroid and spacecraft, the IAU’s selections recognize significant sites and discoveries on Earth that further our understanding of humanity’s origins.
The asteroid was named in 2015 after paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson, discoverer of one of the most famous fossils ever found of a female hominin, or ancient human ancestor, nicknamed Lucy. Just as the Lucy fossil revolutionized our understanding of human evolution, NASA’s Lucy mission aims to revolutionize our understanding of solar system evolution by studying at least eight Trojan asteroids that share an orbit with Jupiter.
Postcard commemorating NASA’s Lucy spacecraft April 20, 2025, encounter with the asteroid Donaldjohanson. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Donaldjohanson, located in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, was a target for Lucy because it offered an opportunity for a comprehensive “dress rehearsal” for Lucy’s main mission, with all three of its science instruments carrying out observation sequences very similar to the ones that will occur at the Trojans.
After exploring the asteroid and getting to see its features up close, the Lucy science and engineering team proposed to name the asteroid’s surface features in recognition of significant paleoanthropological sites and discoveries, which the IAU accepted.
The smaller lobe is called Afar Lobus, after the Ethiopian region where Lucy and other hominin fossils were found. The larger lobe is named Olduvai Lobus, after the Tanzanian river gorge that has also yielded many important hominin discoveries.
The asteroid’s neck, Windover Collum, which joins those two lobes, is named after the Windover Archeological Site near Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida — where NASA’s Lucy mission launched in 2021. Human remains and artifacts recovered from that site revolutionized our understanding of the people who lived in Florida around 7,300 years ago.
Officially recognized names of geologic features on the asteroid Donaldjohanson. NASA Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL Two smooth areas on the asteroid’s neck are named Hadar Regio, marking the specific site of Johanson’s discovery of the Lucy fossil, and Minatogawa Regio, after the location where the oldest known hominins in Japan were found. Select boulders and craters on Donaldjohanson are named after notable fossils ranging from pre-Homo sapiens hominins to ancient modern humans. The IAU also approved a coordinate system for mapping features on this uniquely shaped small world.
As of Sept. 9, the Lucy spacecraft was nearly 300 million miles (480 million km) from the Sun en route to its August 2027 encounter with its first Trojan asteroid called Eurybates. This places Lucy about three quarters of the way through the main asteroid belt. Since its encounter with Donaldjohanson, Lucy has been cruising without passing close to any other asteroids, and without requiring any trajectory correction maneuvers.
The team continues to carefully monitor the instruments and spacecraft as it travels farther from the Sun into a cooler environment.
Stay tuned at nasa.gov/lucy for more updates as Lucy continues its journey toward the never-before-explored Jupiter Trojan asteroids.
By Katherine Kretke
Southwest Research Institute
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By NASA
Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions Mars Home 3 min read
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4655-4660: Boxworks With a View
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image, showing the boxwork terrain in the foreground and the bright wind-sculpted material in the distance, on Sept. 12, 2025. Curiosity used its Right Navigation Camera on Sol 4657, or Martian day 4,657 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission, at 00:50:58 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Written by Sharon Wilson Purdy, Planetary Geologist at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
Earth planning date: Friday Sept. 12, 2025
Curiosity continues to image, analyze, and traverse through a landscape characterized by higher standing ridges separating low-lying depressions (hollows) — a surface known as the boxwork terrain on Mount Sharp. The science team is actively characterizing the texture, chemistry, and mineralogy of the ridges and hollows to understand how this surface formed and changed over time. I served as the Geology theme group “Keeper of the Plan” for Sols 4656-4657 where I compiled the details for each scientific activity that will be carried out by the rover. I selected the particular Navcam image accompanying this blog post because it not only shows the intriguing boxwork terrain beneath our wheels but also highlights the striking wind-sculpted yardangs on our exciting route ahead.
Our successful drive over the weekend set us up nicely to investigate the bedrock ridge in the workspace directly in front of the rover on Sol 4655. The target “Chango” was selected for closer inspection with the dust removal tool (DRT) and APXS and MAHLI instruments. ChemCam used its LIBS instrument to analyze the chemistry of a bedrock ridge at the “Quechua” target, and Mastcam and ChemCam included several mosaics to document walls of nearby hollow interiors, fractures, and the hollow-to-ridge transitions.
The plan for Sols 4656-4657 focused on a variety of remote sensing activities including a 360-degree mosaic by Mastcam — one of the most spectacular data products! ChemCam investigated the local bedrock and a raised resistant bedrock feature at “Chita” and “Chaco,” respectively, and then turned its sights to the distant floor of Gale crater to image features that may have formed when water eroded material from the interior walls of the crater rim.
Planning on Friday for Sols 4658-4660 included three targeted science blocks to dig deeper into the boxwork unit. ChemCam LIBS will analyze the bedrock at targets “Tarata” and “El Sombrio” and a rock that does not look like typical bedrock at “Cobres.” The Mastcam team assembled multiple images and mosaics that will help decipher the distribution of veins, fractures, and nodules (somewhat rounded features) in the bedrock, as well as small sand dunes in and around the workspace. The environmental theme group worked throughout the week to monitor clouds and dust-devil activity, and planned Mastcam tau observations to assess the optical depth of the atmosphere and constrain aerosol scattering properties.
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NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity at the base of Mount Sharp NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Share
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Last Updated Sep 15, 2025 Related Terms
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By European Space Agency
Video: 00:01:43 An essential part of ESA’s Space Safety programme is dedicated to getting and keeping Earth’s orbits clean from space debris. In the long run, the Agency aspires to stimulate a true circular economy in space, minimising the impact of spaceflight on Earth and its resources where possible. As part of ESA’s Zero Debris approach, new ESA missions will be designed for safe operations and disposal to stop the creation of new debris by 2030.
ESA has now taken another important step on the road towards sustainability in space with its first in-orbit servicing mission RISE, planned for launch in 2029.
RISE is a commercial in-orbit servicing mission that will demonstrate that it can safely rendezvous and dock to a geostationary client satellite, extending the life of geostationary satellites that need support with attitude and orbit control, but are otherwise in working order.
After verifying that it meets all the performance standards in a first demonstration, prime contractor, operator and co-founder D-Orbit will start commercial life extension services for geostationary satellites.
ESA’s RISE mission marks a promising step towards enhancing in-orbit services and technologies, such as refuelling, refurbishment and assembling – all essential elements for creating a circular economy in space.
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By European Space Agency
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