52246 Donaldjohanson

52246 Donaldjohanson (provisional designation 1981 EQ5) is a carbonaceous Erigonian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 8 kilometers (5.0 miles) long and 3.5 kilometers (2.2 miles) at its widest point. It was discovered on 2 March 1981, by American astronomer Schelte Bus at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia. The C-type asteroid was the 2nd target of the Lucy mission, with the spacecraft flying 960 km (600 mi) from the surface on 20 April 2025, revealing the asteroid to be a contact binary. It was aptly named after American paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson, the discoverer of the "Lucy" hominid fossil. Orbit and classification Donaldjohanson is a member of the Erigone family (406), a large carbonaceous asteroid family of nearly 2,000 known members, which is named after its parent body 163 Erigone...