NASA’s Lucy spacecraft captured this week’s lunar eclipse from allege

This week’s lunar eclipse wasn’t simplest seen from the ground and from the Global Dwelling Plan — it become moreover seen from 64 million miles (100 million kilometers) away from Earth by the Lucy spacecraft. Lucy, which is an uncrewed craft from NASA and the Southwest Analysis Institute on its formulation to peek the Trojan asteroids in the orbit of Jupiter, purchased a seek for of the lunar eclipse on Might possibly simply 15 and become ready to snap footage over a length of three hours which were grew to develop to be proper into a time-lapse video:

The footage had been taken using Lucy’s L’LORRI instrument which captures excessive-resolution dim and white footage. It took 86 footage in total which were combined collectively to manufacture the time-lapse.

Though Lucy is some distance away from Earth, the instrument become relaxed ample with a conception to jog trying to search out the moon because it handed into the Earth’s shadow and become hidden in darkness for a short time.

”Whereas total lunar eclipses aren’t that rare — they happen yearly or so — it isn’t that often that you earn a possibility to stare them from a unconditionally original attitude,” stated Lucy’s most major investigator, Hal Levison, in a statement. “When the team realized Lucy had a possibility to stare this lunar eclipse as a share of the instrument calibration direction of, all people become extremely enraged.”

This illustration shows the Lucy spacecraft passing one of the Trojan Asteroids near Jupiter. — This illustration shows the Lucy spacecraft passing one of the important Trojan Asteroids reach Jupiter. Southwest Analysis Institute

Lucy become in the neighborhood of Earth because, following its starting up in October 2021, it become traveling in direction of the Earth to assemble a flyby in October 2022. By passing end to an enormous body take care of the Earth the spacecraft can earn a gravity-assisted enhance to encourage spend it to its distant destination. All over its high-tail, the team can assemble use of its devices take care of its four cameras to stare phenomena take care of the lunar eclipse, but this requires some inventive scheduling as this isn’t what these devices are essentially designed for.

“Capturing these footage in actuality become an out of this world team effort. The instrument, steering, navigation, and science operations groups all had to work collectively to acquire these files, getting the Earth and the Moon in the identical frame,” stated Acting Deputy Significant Investigator John Spencer. “And all this had to be accomplished while working the spacecraft in a in actuality no longer easy environment.”