Winning entries have been notified!
Thank you to the students and teachers who participated in the contest!
First Place—Tim Topping, 8th Grade
St. Mary Catholic School, Littleton CO
Second Place—Jane Hanselman, 8th Grade
St. Mary Catholic School, Littleton CO
Third Place—Annemarie Stanga, 8th Grade
St. Mary Catholic School, Littleton CO
First Place—Sarah Tran, 11th Grade
Hamilton High School, Chandler AZ
Second Place—Aarav Gupta, 9th Grade
Bellamine College Prep, San Jose CA
Third Place—Tsehai Alfred, 10th Grade
Good Hope Country Day School, Kingshill, US Virgin Islands
Sanjana Bhatta, 8th Grade
Hillsborough Middle School, Hillsborough NJ
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Lucy Deady, 8th Grade
East Middle School, Plymouth MI
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Laurel Gerali, 8th Grade
St. Mary Catholic School, Littleton CO
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Cecilia Guerrera, 8th Grade
St. Mary Catholic School, Littleton CO
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Navya Jain, 6th Grade
Arizona College Prep Oakland, Chandler AZ
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Tierney Williams, 8th Grade
Colorado Academy, Denver CO
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Kevin Zhang, 6th Grade
Arizona College Prep Oakland, Chandler AZ
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Mathieu Dale, 12th Grade
Good Hope Country Day School, Kingshill, US Virgin Islands
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Tate Given, 10th Grade
Good Hope Country Day School, Kingshill, US Virgin Islands
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Elizabeth Jesse Johnson, 11th Grade
Whitnall High School, Greenfield WI
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Emily Mohammed, 10th Grade
Good Hope Country Day School, Kingshill, US Virgin Islands
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Kaci Romanwolfe, 12th Grade
Palatine High School, Palatine IL
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Shana Sargeant, 11th Grade
Good Hope Country Day School, Kingshill, US Virgin Islands
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Ajla Trumic, 9th Grade
Santa Clara High School, Santa Clara CA
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For the contest,middle school students designed a “mission patch” showing how the process of evolution on Earth may parallel the evolution of the solar system and explained their design with a poem or short essay.
High school students explored the idea of how the Lucy Spacecraft will stay in orbit around the Sun for millions of years and created a message in the form of original artwork (drawing, paintings, digital images, photographs, photographs of sculptures) to future humans who may someday find, highlighting humankind’s drive to explore, discover, and understand our origins—on Earth and in the Solar System.
What's the connection between a 3.2 million year old fossil and a NASA mission to the Trojan asteroids? Learn about the Lucy Fossil and the NASA Lucy Mission and tell your own story of human exploration!
The NASA Lucy Mission to the Jupiter Trojan asteroids was named by a Southwest Research Institute team led by Principal Investigator Hal Levison and Deputy Principal Investigator Cathy Olkin in honor of the 3.2-million-year-old human ancestor fossil “Lucy,” discovered by Donald Johanson, Founding Director of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University.
The Lucy Mission will be the first space mission to explore a group of small asteroids known as the Trojan asteroids. These asteroid groups are outer Solar System asteroids that orbit the sun in the same path as Jupiter—some asteroids are in front of the planet as it orbits, and some asteroids trail the planet as it makes its way around the sun.
The gas giant is massive enough that normally it scatters away all asteroids in its vicinity, but, due to the combined gravitational influences of the Sun and Jupiter, these Trojan asteroids have been trapped on stable orbits for billions of years. These asteroids provide a unique, never-before-explored sample of the remnants of our early Solar System.
So—just as the Lucy fossil provided unique insights into humanity’s evolution, the Lucy Mission promises to revolutionize our knowledge of planetary origins and the formation of the Solar System.
. (2020, Jun 29). Lucy in Space. Retrieved June 04, 2023, from https://askananthropologist.asu.edu/lucy-in-space
American Psychological Association, 6th ed., 2nd printing, 2009.
For more info, see the APA citation guide.
. "Lucy in Space." ASU - Ask An Anthropologist. Published June 29, 2020. Last modified May 28, 2021. https://askananthropologist.asu.edu/lucy-in-space.
Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed., 2017.
For more info, see the Chicago Manual citation guide.
. Lucy in Space. ASU - Ask An Anthropologist. June 29, 2020, askananthropologist.asu.edu/lucy-in-space. Accessed 2023 June 04.
Modern Language Association, 8th ed., 2016.
For more info, see the MLA citation guide.
When did human ancestors use stone tools?
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