2024 Robert M. Walker Distinguished Lectures: Public Lecture with Harold Levison on Traveling with Lucy on the First Ever Mission to the Trojan Asteroids!

Dr. Levison will discuss NASA's Lucy mission, which is the first reconnaissance of the so-called Jupiter Trojan asteroids. Asteroids are the leftovers from the age of planet formation. But, unlike the planets themselves, they have remained relatively unchanged since they formed. As a result, they hold vital clues to how the Earth and other planets came to be, and can be considered the fossils of planet formation. Lucy will visit eight of these important objects between 2027 and 2033. It will use a suite of remote sensing instruments to map geologic, surface color and composition, thermal and other physical properties of its targets at close range. Lucy, like the human fossil for which it is named, will revolutionize the understanding of our origins.
 

Dr. Levison’s principal research interests lie in the dynamics of astronomical objects. In particular, he focuses on the formation and long-term behavior of solar system bodies. Dr. Levison's work includes studies of the formation of both giant and terrestrial planets, the long-term dynamical behavior of comets, the dynamics of objects in the Kuiper belt, the origin and stability of Trojan asteroids, and the formation of satellites.