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Highlights

Video: Science Through Shadows Episode 4 - Chasing Polymele's Shadow

Apr 30, 2024 - Join us as we travel with citizen scientists playing a crucial role for NASA’s LUCY mission. On February 3, 2023, over 100 telescopes across two continents were deployed to observe the Trojan asteroid Polymele and its satellite during an occultation. In this episode, we'll learn about occultations which occur when an object, like an asteroid, passes in front of a star, momentarily blocking its light and sending a shadow towards Earth telescopes. Occultation measurements provide valuable data about size, shape, and orbit, helping NASA plan for future flyby's of Jupiter’s trojan asteroids.

Webinar: Chasing Shadows - Using Stellar Occultations to Study the Outer Solar System

May 04, 2023 - Drs. Marc Buie and John Keller discuss a unique citizen science network known as RECON that involves rural high schools from Yuma, Arizona up through British Columbia to study outer solar system objects through occultations. They also discuss how occultations support the NASA Lucy mission and how to potentially become more involved. The NASA SciAct project titled “Science Through Shadow” will include flat screen and full dome videos on the science of eclipses, occultations, and transits for use in classrooms, planetariums, and libraries around the US.

Article: Spotting A Satellite

Apr 25, 2023 - In Feburary 2023, astronomers and citizen scientists joined forces to detect the satellite of the Trojan asteroid Polymele.

Radio: Look, up in the sky — it’s Polymele

Jan 31, 2023 - Around 200 astronomers are gathering in Colorado this week before heading east in a search for clear skies and a view of an asteroid that’s 500 million miles away. The project is part of an effort to learn more about asteroid Polymele and its tiny satellite before a NASA flyby in 2027.

Article: Discovering a Satellite

Aug 18, 2022 - A behind the scenes look at how the Lucy Team discovered that the spacecraft will be visiting not 8, but 9 asteroids on its record-breaking voyage to the Jupiter Trojan asteroids.

Article: Chasing an Asteroid’s Shadow

Mar 17, 2021 - While we won't really know what the Trojan asteroids will look like until the Lucy Spacecraft arrives after 2028, we can get a good view of their shadows here from Earth through occultations.