This image of Earth was taken on October 15, 2022, by NASA’s Lucy spacecraft at a distance of 620,000 kilometers as part of an instrument calibration procedure.

According to a statement from NASA that accompanied the image, the top left of the image shows a view of Hadar, Ethiopia, the site of the 3.2 million-year-old fossil human ancestor that gave the spacecraft its name.

The Jupiter Trojan Asteroids, a group of “fossil” asteroids that orbit the Sun at the same distance as Jupiter, are being explored for the first time by Lucy.

In order for the Lucy spacecraft to reach these mysterious asteroids, its trajectory includes three Earth gravity assistance.

The picture was captured using Lucy’s Terminal Tracking Camera (T2CAM) system, a pair of identical cameras used to follow asteroids during high-speed interactions with Lucy. Malin Space Science Systems developed, produced, and tested the T2CAM system; Lockheed Martin installed and managed the T2CAMs in the Lucy spacecraft.

As part of the aforementioned instrument calibration cycle, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft took the second image of Earth and the Moon on October 13, 2022, at a distance of 1.4 million kilometers.

In her 12-year trip, Lucy will pass by a record number of asteroids and study their diversity in an effort to uncover more information about the solar system’s formation.

Image Credit: NASA

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