Lucy scientists name the features on asteroid Donaldjohanson
Click for original.
The science team for the asteroid probe Lucy have now released their names for the features they discovered on the main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson when the spacecraft flew past in April 2025.
The smaller lobe is called Afar Lobus, after the Ethiopian region where Lucy and other hominin fossils were found. The larger lobe is named Olduvai Lobus, after the Tanzanian river gorge that has also yielded many important hominin discoveries.
The asteroid’s neck, Windover Collum, which joins those two lobes, is named after the Windover Archeological Site near Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida — where NASA’s Lucy mission launched in 2021. Human remains and artifacts recovered from that site revolutionized our understanding of the people who lived in Florida around 7,300 years ago.
Two smooth areas on the asteroid’s neck are named Hadar Regio, marking the specific site of Johanson’s discovery of the Lucy fossil, and Minatogawa Regio, after the location where the oldest known hominins in Japan were found. Select boulders and craters on Donaldjohanson are named after notable fossils ranging from pre-Homo sapiens hominins to ancient modern humans.
These names were “approved” by the International Astronautical Union (IAU), which claims the authority over the naming of every rock, boulder, pebble in space. The truth is, however, that future spacefarers are going to accept these names no matter what the IAU had said, simply because these scientists did the first exploration of this asteroid. They get to choose, not the IAU.
The spacecraft is now on its long coast out of the main belt and on to the orbit of Jupiter, where it will make fly-bys of ten different asteroids.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Click for original.
The science team for the asteroid probe Lucy have now released their names for the features they discovered on the main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson when the spacecraft flew past in April 2025.
The smaller lobe is called Afar Lobus, after the Ethiopian region where Lucy and other hominin fossils were found. The larger lobe is named Olduvai Lobus, after the Tanzanian river gorge that has also yielded many important hominin discoveries.
The asteroid’s neck, Windover Collum, which joins those two lobes, is named after the Windover Archeological Site near Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida — where NASA’s Lucy mission launched in 2021. Human remains and artifacts recovered from that site revolutionized our understanding of the people who lived in Florida around 7,300 years ago.
Two smooth areas on the asteroid’s neck are named Hadar Regio, marking the specific site of Johanson’s discovery of the Lucy fossil, and Minatogawa Regio, after the location where the oldest known hominins in Japan were found. Select boulders and craters on Donaldjohanson are named after notable fossils ranging from pre-Homo sapiens hominins to ancient modern humans.
These names were “approved” by the International Astronautical Union (IAU), which claims the authority over the naming of every rock, boulder, pebble in space. The truth is, however, that future spacefarers are going to accept these names no matter what the IAU had said, simply because these scientists did the first exploration of this asteroid. They get to choose, not the IAU.
The spacecraft is now on its long coast out of the main belt and on to the orbit of Jupiter, where it will make fly-bys of ten different asteroids.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
On Asteroid mining
https://www.space.com/astronomy/earth/earths-next-mini-moon-could-create-a-gold-rush-for-asteroid-miners
Moon chunks are not rubble piles—a firm base:
https://spaceflighthistory.blogspot.com/2016/12/a-vision-of-future-military-uses-of.html?m=1
Mr Z,
You said “The truth is, however, that future spacefarers are going to accept these names no matter what the IAU had said, simply because these scientists did the first exploration of this asteroid. ”
I must disagree.
I doubt they will. If they bother with names at all, they will come up with their own.
The obsession that every divit and mole hill on the dark side of every stone in the sky must be named is a little ridiculous in my opinion.
If/when there are future spacefarers, they are not going to have time to check the catalog as they fly by.