NASA launches first mission to Jupiter's Trojan asteroids

The Atlas V rocket responsible for propelling the spacecraft took off Saturday at 5:34 a.m. local time (9:34 UT) from Cape Canaveral.

REUTERS - THOM BAUR

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"Lucy", a probe responsible for exploring a world never before surveyed, the Trojan asteroids, took off on Saturday morning October 16 from Florida.

These pebbles that orbit Jupiter could contain a lot of information about the origins of our solar system.

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Lucy

 - like the human fossil that teaches us about our history.

Except that this is not about bones, but pebbles, the Trojan asteroids of Jupiter to be precise.

These are objects that, according to theory, formed on the outskirts of our solar system four and a half billion years ago.

Since then, according to the gravitational disturbances of the other planets, they have approached the galactic center before being caught by Jupiter.

If this model proves to be correct, then they offer the great advantage of always being made of primitive materials, while being relatively accessible.

A twelve year journey

Relatively, because the trip will still take a little less than six years.

Nearly four years of mission will follow, navigating between the different targets.

The Lucy probe is the first solar-powered probe to venture this far from the sun, and it will see more asteroids than any other spacecraft before it - eight in all.

Jonathan WALTER AFP

Lucy will

fly over a total of five of these Trojans that she will study using three scientific instruments: composition, geology, mass, density.

The mission will make it possible to better characterize these objects which have so far never been visited.

This information will validate our current model of solar system formation.

It is called the Nice model, like the city, since it was developed at the Côte d'Azur Observatory.

Or on the contrary 

could bring elements obliging us to review our copy.

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• Space