NASA's Lucy spacecraft to observe total lunar eclipse on May 16 from deep space

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft, which launched last October to study Jupiter’s trojan asteroids, will be our eyes and ears for the upcoming lunar eclipse. The celestial event will occur on May 16 after 7:58 am, as per Indian standard time, and will end at 11:25 am. Notably, the peak of the total lunar eclipse, wherein the Moon will turn red will occur at 9:41 am, as per Time and Date. It is also worth noting that the eclipse will not be visible in India but you can watch it courtesy of NASA’s live stream.

Lucy prepares for the lunar eclipse

Interestingly, the Lucy probe will provide views of the eclipse as if we are seeing it from deep space. The first leg of the spacecraft’s journey to the trojan asteroids is making one orbit around the sun and it is currently headed back towards the Earth for a gravity assist this October. According to NASA, the spacecraft reached 65 million miles (100 million km) from the Earth, which is the maximum distance it would travel from our planet during this first year in space.

(Lucy spacecraft's and Earth's orbit around the sun; Image: NASA)

As of now, Lucy is significantly far from Earth, about 70% of the distance between the Earth and the Moon, but scientists are confident that the spacecraft’s high-resolution camera will provide sharp images. The photos sent by the spacecraft will be much-awaited since it would view the eclipse from an angle rarely seen. 

NASA says that from Lucy’s position, the gibbous Earth and Moon will be easily visible. When the moon will enter and exit the Earth’s shadow, which is the reason for a lunar eclipse, the moon will appear to blink and the phenomenon will be captured by an instrument named L’LORRI fitted aboard the probe. The agency even shared a simulated picture of the Earth and the moon from the perspective of the Lucy spacecraft. An image has also been shared above showing Lucy’s orbit which overlaps that of the Earth. 

(Simulation of Earth and Moon seen by Lucy; Image: NASA)

"Viewing this eclipse will allow the Lucy team to do a “test run” of the observation procedures, making sure that all the imagers and equipment are working as expected. It is also a fun opportunity as it is extremely rare to get real images of astronomical events like this from such a unique vantage point", NASA said in a statement.