Data from NASA's WISE used to preview Lucy mission's asteroid Dinkinesh

NASA's Lucy mission will soon have its first asteroid encounter as the spacecraft travels through deep space en route to Jupiter's orbit. But before the spacecraft passes 265 miles (425 kilometers) from the surface of the small asteroid Dinkinesh, researchers have used 13-year-old infrared data from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) to support the mission's flyby. Their new study provides updated estimates of the asteroid's size and albedo—a measurement of surface reflectivity—that could help scientists better understand the nature of some near-Earth objects.