The Lucy flyby of (52246) Donaldjohanson: A bilobed asteroid with tumbling rotation
Abstract
The main belt asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson (DJ) is a likely member of the Erigone asteroid family. This implies that DJ is a fragment of a larger parent body that was destroyed in a collision about 155 million years ago. We report observations taken during a flyby of DJ by the Lucy spacecraft. We found that DJ is composed of two heavily cratered lobes, connected by a smoother neck, with overall dimensions 8.8 kilometers (km) by 4.4 km by 3.1 km. The crater density is consistent with the Erigone family’s age, except for craters <0.4 km, which have been preferentially erased. DJ rotates slowly in a tumbling state, likely owing to spin-down by radiative forces. Surface spectra show iron-bearing phyllosilicates, indicating moderate aqueous evolution on the parent body.
Article Details
Journal Info
Science
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Authors (66)
Simone Marchi
Harold F. Levison
Solar System Science and Exploration Division, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, USA.
Keith S. Noll
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA.
John R. Spencer
Solar System Science and Exploration Division, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, USA.
Thomas S. Statler
NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, USA.
Olivier S. Barnouin
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, USA.
James F. Bell
School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
Edward B. Bierhaus
Lockheed Martin Space, Littleton, CO, USA.
Richard Binzel
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
William F. Bottke
Daniel Britt
Department of Physics, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA.
Michael E. Brown
Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
Marc W. Buie
Solar System Science and Exploration Division, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, USA.
Philip R. Christensen
School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
Neil Dello Russo
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, USA.
Joshua P. Emery
Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.
William M. Grundy
Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.
Victoria E. Hamilton
Solar System Science and Exploration Division, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, USA.
Carly Howett
Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ, USA.
Hannah H. Kaplan
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA.
Katherine Kretke
Solar System Science and Exploration Division, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, USA.
Tod R. Lauer
National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, National Science Foundation, Tucson, AZ, USA.
Brian H. May
London Stereoscopic Company, London, UK.
Stefano Mottola
Institute of Space Research, German Aerospace Center, Berlin, Germany.
Catherine B. Olkin
Fifth West Consulting, Niwot, CO, USA.
Martin Pätzold
Freies Institut für Planetenforschung Köln, Cologne, Germany.
Joel Wm. Parker
Solar System Science and Exploration Division, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, USA.
Frank Preusker
Institute of Space Research, German Aerospace Center, Berlin, Germany.
Silvia Protopapa
Solar System Science and Exploration Division, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, USA.
Dennis C. Reuter
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA.
Stuart J. Robbins
Solar System Science and Exploration Division, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, USA.
Julien Salmon
Solar System Science and Exploration Division, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, USA.
Amy A. Simon
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA.
S. Alan Stern
Space Sector, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, USA.
Jessica M. Sunshine
Department of Astronomy, Department of Geological, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
David Vokrouhlický
Astronomical Institute, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.
Harold A. Weaver
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, USA.
Harrison Agrusa
Université Côte d’Azur, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, French National Center for Scientific Research, Laboratoire Lagrange, Nice, France.
Emily S. Costello
Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA.
Masatoshi Hirabayashi
Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Fiona Nichols-Fleming
Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC, USA.
Jennifer E. C. Scully
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
Anne Verbiscer
Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
Coralie Adam
Flight Dynamics Interplanetary Department, KinetX, Littleton, CO, USA.
John Andrews
Solar System Science and Exploration Division, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, USA.
Kevin E. Berry
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA.
Emma Birath
Solar System Science and Exploration Division, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, USA.
Rich Burns
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA.
Russell Carpenter
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA.
Mark Effertz
Lockheed Martin Space, Littleton, CO, USA.
Kristen Francis
Lockheed Martin Space, Littleton, CO, USA.
Jeroen Geeraert
Flight Dynamics Interplanetary Department, KinetX, Littleton, CO, USA.
Sheila Gray
Lockheed Martin Space, Littleton, CO, USA.
Katie Hegedus
Lockheed Martin Space, Littleton, CO, USA.
David Kaufmann
Solar System Science and Exploration Division, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, USA.
Brian A. Keeney
Solar System Science and Exploration Division, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, USA.
Thomas Kennedy
Lockheed Martin Space, Littleton, CO, USA.
Jim McAdams
Flight Dynamics Interplanetary Department, KinetX, Littleton, CO, USA.
Matthew Montanaro
Center for Imaging Science, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, USA.
Jon Pineau
Stellar Solutions, Denver, CO, USA.
Devin Poland
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA.
Eric Sahr
Flight Dynamics Interplanetary Department, KinetX, Littleton, CO, USA.
Ishita Solanki
Solar System Science and Exploration Division, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, USA.
Dale Stanbridge
Flight Dynamics Interplanetary Department, KinetX, Littleton, CO, USA.
Brian Sutter
Lockheed Martin Space, Littleton, CO, USA.
Michael Vincent
Solar System Science and Exploration Division, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, USA.