Lucy’s next stop — “the main event,” as Levison calls it — will be the Trojan asteroids that share Jupiter’s orbit around the sun. Swarms of Trojans precede and follow the solar system’s largest planet as it circles the sun. Lucy will visit eight of them from 2027 through 2033, some of them in pairs of two.

This asteroid is bigger than scientists anticipated, about 5 miles long and 2 miles wide at its widest point — resembling a deformed peanut.