NASA's Lucy mission to begin voyage to Trojan asteroids

Lucy, NASA's first mission to the Trojan asteroids, is all set to explore the solar system and discover its secrets.

Astronomers believe that these primitive bodies are remnants of the material that formed the outer planets.

Trojan asteroids can be divided into two groups. The first ahead of Jupiter and the other behind it.

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In a gravitational balance act, they get their stability from the sun and Jupiter.

The name of the mission was derived from a human ancestor's fossils. The skeleton provides rare insight into the evolution of human beings.

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Lucy will cover eight asteroids in a span of 12 years. Four out of these asteroids are a part of 'two-for-the-price-of-one' binary systems.

NASA will launch a spacecraft impactor Dart that will visit enticing space rocks closer to home.

The test, that could save Earth from an incoming asteroid, will end with Dart ramming the main asteroid's moonlet to change its orbit.