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NASA’s Lucy Reveals Wobbling, Peanut-Shaped Asteroid

NASA's Lucy spacecraft captured close-up data of the 155 million-year-old asteroid Donaldjohanson during a flyby on April 20, 2025. The object is peanut-shaped and rotates on two axes, causing it to wobble in space. Scientists believe the asteroid is a contact binary formed by a collision.

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New data from the Lucy flyby reveals the asteroid's complex rotation and violent origins.

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  1. NASA Lucy Mission Finds Wobbling Peanut-Shaped Asteroid

    NASA's Lucy spacecraft captured close-up data of the 155 million-year-old asteroid Donaldjohanson during a flyby on April 20, 2025. The object is peanut-shaped and rotates on two axes, causing it to wobble in space. Scientists believe the asteroid is a contact binary formed by a collision.

    What's confirmed:

    • The asteroid Donaldjohanson is peanut-shaped and 155 million years old.
    • Lucy flew by the asteroid on April 20, 2025.
    • The asteroid rotates end-over-end once every 10.5 Earth days and wobbles around its horizontal axis every 26.5 days.
    • Donaldjohanson is a contact binary that likely formed when two separate bodies collided and merged.
    • The asteroid is nearly the length of 100 football fields.
    • Findings were published on June 18, 2026, in the journal Science.

    Still unconfirmed:

    • The asteroid may have once contained water.
    • The rock is likely the byproduct of a catastrophic collision millions of years ago.
    confidence 100%