The asteroid targets of this NASA mission are turning out to be very strange | Space
Related: Meet the 8 asteroids NASA’s Lucy spacecraft will visit
… Two Lucy targets in particular stand out to Buie: Polymele, which the spacecraft will fly past in September 2027, and Leucus, slated for an April 2028 flyby.Occultation work has already offered scientists two surprises about Polymele. Astronomers detected a small, as-yet-unnamed moon orbiting Polymele during occultation observations gathered in March. And the outline revealed so far suggests that the main rock is strange all on its own. “It’s actually a kind of hamburger shape, a very oblate object,” Buie said.
Meanwhile, Leucus seems to be missing a chunk of its
southern side. “That one could be duking it out with Polymele for the
award for the strangest object we’re gonna see,” Buie said. “Leucus is
just a bizarre shape and I can’t wait to get there and take a look at
this one up close." …