Once, a long time ago, a not-quite-human creature roamed the Earth. She was short, the size of a child, with a much smaller brain. She probably communicated with growls, hoots and giggles, like chimpanzees, but didn’t speak. And that’s why she didn’t have a name, at least not one that you would think was a name today.
After discovering her bones in what is now Ethiopia, scientists gave her a name: Lucy. She was the first Australopithicus afarensis never found, hominid predecessor of today’s people. We don’t know if A. afarensis was our direct precursor or an offshoot of a common ancestor. Either way, his fossil, along with hundreds of others found later, offers clues to the origins of our own species, a chapter of our ancient past that is otherwise difficult to discover.
Three million years after Lucy’s death, maybe after fall from a tree— a NASA spacecraft that launched in October 2021 has traveled more than a hundred million miles from Earth en route to the realm of Jupiter. The spacecraft body itself is small, only the size of an adult human, but its mission is grand: to explore two clusters of asteroids driven by Jupiter’s gravity, relics untouched since the dawn of the solar system.
Billions of years ago, similar asteroids collided and grew into planets. Examining Jupiter’s asteroid fossils up close will expand our understanding of the origins of our own planet, a chapter of our ancient cosmic past that is otherwise hard to discover.
For this reason, the scientists who designed and built the spacecraft named it Lucy.
A fitting tribute. But this tribute to our past was only the first of this astronomical anthropological mission.
Almost all of the asteroids we observe in the solar system are far from pristine; instead, they have been crushed, irradiated, and otherwise modified for eons. But thanks to a quirk of gravity, a special subset of asteroids remains well preserved. This is because the combined gravity of the sun and Jupiter creates stable regions leading and following the giant planet 60 degrees in its orbit. These are the sun-Jupiter points L4 and L5, where “L” stands for Joseph-Louis LaGrange, the Italian-born French mathematician who mathematically calculated the existence of such points. They are gravitational traps, where objects can linger for eons. Thousands of asteroids occupy them. The first discoveries were named after heroes of Greek history of the Trojan War, and are therefore known as Trojan asteroidsor just Trojans, clustered around the Trojan Dots.
Probably time capsules from the dawn of the solar system, Trojans are the target of Lucia’s mission. The spacecraft is in a long looping orbit which takes it into Jupiter’s orbit, first to L4, the main Trojan cluster, then to Earth for gravitational assistance, then to L5, the rear cluster. Each circuit takes six years, with Lucy investigating more of these ancient rocks each time she reaches Jupiter’s orbit.
The spacecraft must also cross the main asteroid belt each time. Its first encounter was to be a four-kilometre-wide main-belt asteroid designated 1981 EQ5. In 2015, however, shortly after Lucy was approved and funded by NASA, the asteroid was given a proper name: (52246) Donald Johansonwhich pays homage to the anthropologist who discovered the fossilized bones of A. afarensis Lucia in 1974.
Again, fitting. But there is more.
Planetary scientist Raphael Marschall of the Côte d’Azur Observatory in France has examined the orbits of half a million main-belt asteroids, looking for potential targets for Lucy. He found one, called 1999 VD57, a small asteroid about 700 meters in diameter. Lucy would have passed about 65,000 kilometers away from it, but small spacecraft maneuvers have now dragged it within 450 kilometers of the asteroid, close enough to get a good view of its shape and surface. This will also make the asteroid the first encountered by Lucy, on November 1, 2023.
Given the circumstances, Lucy’s team proposed a name to the International Astronomical Union (the official custodians of astronomical categorizations) it was quickly accepted: Dinkinesh, meaning “you are wonderful” or “wonderful” in Amharic, a language used by Ethiopians.
What makes this so wonderful is that Dinkinesh is the Ethiopian name of the hominid Lucy.
So now the first asteroid Lucy the spacecraft will visit is also named after Lucy herself, and the second after its discoverer.
Credit: Alain Nogues/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images
I find all of that, well, wonderful. When I first read these names, I was very moved. Naming the mission after an ancient hominid was already a wonderful act by Lucy’s team, connecting our past on Earth to the universe around us. Naming Dinkinesh shows respect for the people of Ethiopia and their nation’s connection to our origins as humans.
They are scientists who not only honor what they study, but also the humanity behind the science.
It is in our nature to try to understand our origins; every culture has a creation myth. For scientists, the origins of our planet and our species are irresistible puzzles, the pieces scattered across time and space, the rarity making them even more valuable.
Along the way, our nature also compels us to give names to those things we study. It’s a beautiful tradition, a way to commemorate the events and the people who have contributed to our history. This act has deep meaning for us. Just as we are driven to explore, these names help us to seek a connection to what we are studying. How we create these relationships is more than a gesture; it reflects what we hold dear, an acknowledgment of what we honor and who we honor.
I am and have always been perplexed by the idea that scientists should always be aloof, aloof and unbiased observers. Certainly, when we analyze data, this is the default position, but that does not mean that it must always be so in all aspects of research, especially when it comes to studying our origins. , both local and cosmic.
There is deep joy in discovering, exploring knowledge, and growing in the pursuit of truth. How not to be impressed by this company and how not to want to celebrate those who have helped us in this quest?
This is an opinion and analytical article, and the opinions expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily those of American scientist.