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    NASA’s Lucy finds a wobbling peanut-shaped asteroid with signs of ancient water

    June 28, 2026, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Black background graphic with a large white title at top. Upper left shows a gray, pea-nut-shaped, rock-like object. Upper right shows a rectangular inset image of a dark textured rock fragment. Near the center are a mission patch logo and a small globe with Antarctica highlighted. Lower half contains two side-by-side charts with axes, tick marks, and blue and green plotted lines with scattered blue data points. Additional white, blue, and green labels appear throughout the graphic.
    During its April 20, 2025, encounter with the main-belt asteroid Donaldjohanson, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft discovered evidence for iron-rich clays on the surface using its infrared spectrometer. These clays, which are similar to those found in carbon-rich meteorites such as QUE 97990, indicate that water was briefly present in the asteroid during the distant past.
    NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Dan Gallagher

    A bizarre wobbling asteroid revealed by NASA’s Lucy mission is exposing hidden clues about ancient water, cosmic collisions, and the origins of the solar system. NASA’s Lucy spacecraft discovered that asteroid Donaldjohanson is a wobbling, peanut-shaped relic born from a violent collision and slowly reshaped by the subtle force of sunlight...

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