Solar System Simulator · Spacecraft · live
Where is Lucy right now?
Heading for Jupiter's Trojan asteroids, the first in August 2027. Launched 16 October 2021 by NASA.
Worked out for Fri, Oct 23, 2026 (UTC) from JPL Horizons.
What Lucy is doing
Lucy is on a twelve-year tour of the Trojan asteroids, the two swarms that share Jupiter's orbit 60° ahead of it and behind it. On the way it flew past two main-belt asteroids: Dinkinesh in November 2023, which turned out to have a tiny double moon, and Donaldjohanson in April 2025.
What happens next
Its first Trojan is Eurybates in August 2027, then Polymele, Leucus and Orus in the same swarm by the end of 2028, a return past Earth in December 2030, and the trailing swarm's Patroclus and Menoetius in March 2033.
Timeline
| When | Event |
|---|---|
| 16 Oct 2021 | Launch |
| 1 Nov 2023 | Dinkinesh |
| 20 Apr 2025 | Donaldjohanson |
| 12 Aug 2027 | Eurybates, its first Trojan |
| 15 Sep 2027 | Polymele |
| 18 Apr 2028 | Leucus |
| 11 Nov 2028 | Orus |
| Dec 2030 | Earth flyby |
| 2 Mar 2033 | Patroclus and Menoetius |
What the simulator does
- Open the Now tab: the clock jumps to this minute and pauses, and every probe is drawn where JPL Horizons puts it, among the planets where they really are.
- Pick Lucy and the view centres on it; the compressed distance scale keeps even the Voyagers in the frame.
- The positions come from JPL's tables, refreshed every day; the planets come from the simulator's own physics on today's date.
Questions people ask
Where is Lucy right now?
Lucy is 5.14 AU from the Sun, 769.6 million km (478.2 million mi), and 6.11 AU from Earth. Light from it takes 51 minutes to reach us.
How far is Lucy from Earth?
6.11 AU, 914.3 million km (568.1 million mi) from Earth today, so a radio signal takes 51 minutes each way.
When does Lucy reach its first Trojan asteroid?
August 2027: Eurybates, in the swarm that leads Jupiter.
How is its position worked out?
From JPL Horizons, NASA's ephemeris service, which tracks every spacecraft from its radio signals. This site keeps a table of positions a few days apart and reads today's from it; the page is rendered for the day it is served.
Keep going
The distances come from JPL Horizons, refreshed daily; the map and the simulator place the planets with the site's own physics.