WEBVTT FILE 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.474 [Music throughout] 2 00:00:19.019 --> 00:00:22.922 The Trojan asteroids are small bodies in our Solar System. 3 00:00:22.956 --> 00:00:24.958 They share an orbit with Jupiter. 4 00:00:24.958 --> 00:00:27.227 There's two swarms of them. 5 00:00:27.227 --> 00:00:30.630 One located 60 degrees ahead of Jupiter in its orbit, 6 00:00:30.630 --> 00:00:35.201 and the other swarm is located 60 degrees behind Jupiter in its orbit. 7 00:00:35.201 --> 00:00:39.773 And these Trojan asteroids are remnants from planetary formation. 8 00:00:39.806 --> 00:00:43.676 So sometimes we'll call them the fossils of Solar System formation. 9 00:00:44.010 --> 00:00:48.181 Their near neighbors might have gone into forming the giant planets. 10 00:00:48.181 --> 00:00:53.086 And so these objects then became captured in their locations today. 11 00:00:53.086 --> 00:00:56.423 And so in that way, we can look and see what went 12 00:00:56.656 --> 00:00:59.259 into forming the planets in our Solar System. 13 00:00:59.492 --> 00:01:03.663 The main goal of the Lucy mission is to explore the Trojan asteroids. 14 00:01:03.730 --> 00:01:07.567 We want to understand where these asteroids came from 15 00:01:07.867 --> 00:01:09.903 and why they're so diverse. 16 00:01:10.203 --> 00:01:14.107 And this is going to be our first ever exploration of these objects. 17 00:01:14.407 --> 00:01:19.479 From the Earth, we can see certain features on the Trojan asteroids. 18 00:01:19.679 --> 00:01:22.982 We can see where they're located. We can see their colors. 19 00:01:23.249 --> 00:01:25.085 And we can get spectra. 20 00:01:25.085 --> 00:01:28.755 Spectra can tell you about the surface composition. 21 00:01:29.055 --> 00:01:32.725 A spectrum is when you take light and spread it out 22 00:01:32.725 --> 00:01:34.327 into all its different wavelengths. 23 00:01:34.327 --> 00:01:38.164 And so you have the brightness of the light as a function of wavelength. 24 00:01:38.231 --> 00:01:40.467 So think of it like a rainbow. 25 00:01:40.567 --> 00:01:44.337 But you're going to divide up the colors even more finely 26 00:01:44.337 --> 00:01:47.540 than just ROYGBIV. 27 00:01:47.574 --> 00:01:50.743 From Earth, the Trojan asteroids are just a point of light, and you can't 28 00:01:51.244 --> 00:01:55.281 tell one part of the Trojan asteroid composition versus another part. 29 00:01:55.515 --> 00:01:59.786 And Lucy is going to be able to get that detail close up. 30 00:01:59.986 --> 00:02:03.289 We'll be able to do that by taking this spacecraft 31 00:02:03.289 --> 00:02:05.692 and these instruments to the Trojan asteroids. 32 00:02:05.692 --> 00:02:07.026 And we'll be able to see 33 00:02:07.026 --> 00:02:10.763 how the surface composition varies across the Trojan asteroids. 34 00:02:11.164 --> 00:02:13.867 Additionally, we have really large 35 00:02:13.967 --> 00:02:18.271 solar arrays because we are solar powered spacecraft. 36 00:02:18.404 --> 00:02:20.507 The spacecraft gets its power from the Sun. 37 00:02:20.740 --> 00:02:21.875 At the Trojan asteroids 38 00:02:21.875 --> 00:02:25.812 we're more than five times further from the Sun than Earth is. 39 00:02:25.812 --> 00:02:27.313 So there's much less light. 40 00:02:27.313 --> 00:02:30.483 We need large solar arrays to power our spacecraft. 41 00:02:30.583 --> 00:02:34.320 And in fact, we will be the furthest operating 42 00:02:34.654 --> 00:02:38.124 spacecraft powered by solar arrays during our mission.