WASHINGTON, USA, Oct. 22, 2026 - NASA's Lucy spacecraft has documented two contact binary asteroids during preliminary flybys while travelling toward its primary target, Jupiter's Trojan swarms. Lucy launched on October 16, 2021. It is the first mission planned to explore the Trojan asteroids, two unvisited groups that orbit 60 degrees ahead and behind the planet.^[1] The probe has so far visited three asteroids in the main asteroid belt.^[2] During its November 2023 flyby of Dinkinesh, Lucy discovered the asteroid hosts Selam, a contact binary moon.^[3] In April 2025, the craft found main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson is itself a peanut-shaped contact binary with an unusual wobbling rotation.^[4] Mission principal investigator Dr. Hal Levison has stated Lucy will visit 11 total asteroids over its full 12 year duration.^[5] Space Nugget. A contact binary is an asteroid formed when two separate bodies collided gently enough to stick together rather than shatter. They are one of the most commonly observed but least well characterised asteroid types.