NASA's Lucy spacecraft to zoom past asteroid this weekend at 30,000 mph: "We don't know what to expect"

NASA's Lucy spacecraft will swoop past a small asteroid this weekend as it makes its way to an even bigger prize: the unexplored swarms of asteroids near Jupiter.

It will be the second asteroid encounter for Lucy, launched in 2021 on a quest that will take it to 11 space rocks. In November 2023, Lucy successfully "phoned home" to NASA after a high-speed encounter with an asteroid called Dinkinesh.

The close approaches should help scientists better understand our early solar system when planets were forming; asteroids are the ancient leftovers.