NASA鈥檚 Lucy Mission Updates & Occultations

October 17 at 7pm &听October 18听at 7pm

launched in October of 2021 and will be the first to . By the end of its twelve-year mission, the spacecraft will have flown by a record-breaking number of asteroids for a single mission (eleven and counting!).

Why does the mission鈥檚 asteroid count keep increasing? And how does the Lucy Team pinpoint the asteroid positions in the first place?

Join a member of the Lucy Occultation Team for a deep dive into the science and adventure of observing asteroids by observing the shadows of these celestial bodies as they pass in front of distant stars (kind of like a mini solar eclipse). Stick around for mission updates including the latest results from last year鈥檚 encounter with the asteroid and what to expect from Lucy鈥檚 travels in the upcoming months.

Brian Keeney, Principal Analyst 鈥 Southwest Research Institute

Dr. Brian Keeney received his PhD from CU Boulder and is now a Principal Analyst at the听, where he has planned dozens of stellar occultation campaigns for NASA's听听and听missions. Dr. Keeney has also used data from听New Horizons听to measure the far-UV surface reflectance of Pluto鈥檚 moon Charon, measured the amount of O2听in the coma of Comet 67P/Churyumov鈥揋erasimenko using far-UV spectra from听, and studied the circumgalactic medium听using the听's Cosmic Origins Spectrograph.

Ivy Knudsen, Assistant Researcher in Planetary Science 鈥 Southwest Research Institute

Ivy Knudsen - I am a graduate of the Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences program at CU Boulder, class of 2023. I have since been hired to work at the Southwest Research Institute to work on a project for the New Horizons mission, analyzing small impact craters on small bodies. I recently presented the progress of this project in Taiwan at the TNO2024 conference. I also help with telescopic instrumentation for LUCY mission occultations, as well as further crater analysis on the Moon, and Mars. I will be helping with these contributions to understanding solar system formation until I begin graduate school for planetary science and/or astrophysics. l adore this work, having very strong enthusiasm for a wide variety of 铿乪lds including planetary dynamics, Solar System formation and exploration, geophysics, galactic formation, and many others!

Regular ticket prices apply ($12 Adults & $8 Student/Youth/Veteran/Military/Seniors).

CU Boulder students are admitted FREE to THURSDAY NIGHT TALK with valid Buff card.

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