LUCY MISSION

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Context

NASA is poised to send its first spacecraft called LUCY to study Jupiter's Trojan asteroids to glean new insights into the solar system's formation 4.5 billion years ago.

About

The probe, called Lucy after an ancient fossil that provided insights into the evolution of human species, will launch on October 16 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Aim: Its mission is to investigate the group of rocky bodies circling the Sun in two swarms, one preceding Jupiter in its orbital path and the other trailing behind it.
After receiving boosts from Earth's gravity, Lucy will embark on a 12-year journey to eight different asteroids -- one in the Main Belt between Mars and Jupiter and then seven Trojans.
Whatever Lucy finds will give us vital clues about the formation of our solar system.

Fossil

Lucy (Australopithecus), a fossilized hominid of the species Australopithecus afarensis.
Researchers discovered Lucy the fossil in Ethiopia in 1974.