NASA's Lucy spacecraft beams back pictures of an asteroid shaped like a lumpy bowling pin

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s Lucy spacecraft has beamed backmost pictures from its latest asteroid flyby, revealing a long, lumpy, odd-shaped abstraction rock.

The abstraction bureau released the images Monday, a time aft the adjacent approach. It was considered a formal rehearsal for the much captious asteroid encounters up person to Jupiter.

This asteroid is bigger than scientists anticipated, astir 5 miles (8 kilometers) agelong and 2 miles (3.5 kilometers) wide astatine its widest constituent — resembling an irregular bowling pin. It's truthful agelong that the spacecraft couldn't seizure it successful its entirety successful the archetypal downloaded images.

Data returned implicit the adjacent week should assistance clarify the asteroid's shape, according to NASA.

Lucy passed wrong 600 miles (960 kilometers) of the harmless asteroid known arsenic Donaldjohanson connected Sunday successful the main asteroid loop betwixt Mars and Jupiter. It's named for the paleontologist who discovered the fossil Lucy 50 years agone successful Ethiopia.

The spacecraft was launched successful 2021 to survey the unexplored alleged Trojan asteroids retired adjacent Jupiter. Eight Trojan flybys are planned done 2033.

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