By MARCIA DUNN, Associated Press

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — 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 out 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. The close approaches should help scientists better understand our early solar system when planets were forming; asteroids are the ancient leftovers.

The upcoming flyby is a dress rehearsal for 2027 when Lucy reaches its first so-called Trojan asteroid near Jupiter.

Cranking up its three science instruments, the spacecraft on Sunday will observe the harmless asteroid known as Donaldjohanson. The encounter will take place 139 million miles from Earth in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, so far away it will take 12 minutes for each bit of data to reach flight controllers in Colorado.

The paleontologist for whom the asteroid is named plans to be at spacecraft builder and operator Lockheed Martin’s Mission Control for all the action. He discovered the fossil Lucy in Ethiopia 50 years ago; the spacecraft is named after the famous human ancestor.

NASA’s Lucy will venture as close as 596 miles to this asteroid, an estimated 2 ½ miles in length but much shorter in width. Scientists should have a better idea of its size and shape following the brief visit. The spacecraft will zoom by at more than 30,000 mph.

The asteroid is among countless fragments believed to have resulted from a major collision 150 million years ago.

“It’s not going to be a basic potato. We already know that,” said lead scientist Hal Levison of Southwest Research Institute.

Rather, Levison said the asteroid may resemble a bowling pin or even a snowman like Arrokoth, the Kuiper Belt object visited by NASA’s New Horizon spacecraft in 2019. The other possibility is that there are two elongated but separate asteroids far apart.

“We don’t know what to expect. That’s what makes this so cool,” he said.

There will be no communications with Lucy during the flyby as the spacecraft turns its antenna away from Earth in order to track the asteroid. Levison expects to have most of the science data within a day.

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.

Lucy’s first asteroid flyby was in 2023 when it swept past little Dinkinesh, also in the main asteroid belt. The spacecraft discovered a mini moon around it.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By NICHOLAS RICCARDI, Associated Press

The American Civil Liberties Union on Friday asked two federal judges to order the Trump administration not to deport any Venezuelans held in northern Texas under an 18th century wartime law, contending that immigration authorities appeared to be moving to restart removals despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s restrictions on how it can use the act.

The group has already sued to block deportations under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 of two Venezuelans held in the Bluebonnet Detention Center and is asking a judge to issue an order barring removals of any immigrants in the region under the law. In an emergency filing early Friday, the ACLU warned that immigration authorities were accusing other Venezuelan men held there of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang that would make them subject to President Donald Trump’s use of the act.

The act has only been invoked three previous times in U.S. history, most recently during World War II to hold Japanese-American civilians in internment camps. The Trump administration contended it gave them power to swiftly remove immigrants they identified as members of the gang, regardless of their immigration status.

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The ACLU and the group Democracy Forward sued to halt deportations under the act. The U.S. Supreme Court allowed deportations to resume, but ruled unanimously they could proceed only if those about to be removed had a chance to argue their case in court and were given “a reasonable time” to contest their pending removals.

Federal judges in Colorado, New York and southern Texas promptly issued orders barring removal of detainees under the AEA until the administration provides a process for them to make claims in court. But there’s been no such order issued in the area of Texas that covers Bluebonnet, which is located 24 miles north of the city of Abilene in the far northern end of the state.

District Judge James Wesley Hendrix this week declined to bar the administration from removing the two men identified in the ACLU lawsuit because ICE filed sworn declarations that they would not be immediately deported.

But the ACLU’s Friday filing includes sworn declarations from three separate immigration lawyers who said their clients in Bluebonnet were given paperwork indicating they were members of Tren de Aragua and could be deported by Saturday. In one case, immigration lawyer Karene Brown said her client, identified by initials and who only spoke Spanish, was told to sign papers in English.

“ICE informed F.G.M. that these papers were coming from the President, and that he will be deported even if he did not sign it,” Brown wrote.

The ACLU asked Hendrix to issue a temporary order halting any such deportations. Later on Friday, with no response from Hendrix, the ACLU asked District Judge James E. Boasberg in Washington to issue a similar emergency order, saying they had information that detainees were being loaded on buses. Boasberg is the judge who originally ruled on the first Alien Enemies Act case, and found there’s probable cause that the Trump administration committed criminal contempt by disobeying his ruling, only to see the Supreme Court rule that only judges where migrants are being held have jurisdiction to halt their removal.

ICE said it would not comment on the litigation.

Also on Friday, a Massachusetts judge made permanent his temporary ban on the administration deporting immigrants who have exhausted their appeals to countries other than their home ones unless they are informed of their destination and given a chance to object if they’d face torture or death there.

Some countries, like Venezuela, do not accept deportations from the United States, which has led the Trump administration to strike agreements with other countries like Panama to house them. Venezuelans subject to Trump’s Alien Enemies Act have been sent to El Salvador and housed in its notorious main prison.

The national analysts across the country are singing a familiar tune heading into this first-round series: Lakers in six or seven games.

That’s not surprising. Los Angeles has two sure-fire Hall of Famers in LeBron James and Luka Doncic, and the Lakers are the No. 3 seed with home-court advantage. Minnesota, meanwhile, won 17 of its final 21 regular-season games to nab the No. 6 seed, it’s fair to poke holes in the incredibly soft schedule that contributed to that run.

So the Lakers it is, at least in the minds of many. That’s fine by Minnesota.

“I just love it. It’s dope,” Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards said. “I love the fact that everybody wants the Lakers to win. That’s how it’s supposed to be. They don’t want the Timberwolves to win. I get it.”

That’s fine by Minnesota.

The reality is Minnesota can win. The Wolves feature one of the most talented, physical rosters in the NBA capable of beating anyone on any given night. Still, much will be required to oust the Lakers in a best-of-seven series.

Here are Minnesota’s keys to victory.

Balanced offense

The common playoff narrative is that star players must produce for their teams to advance. That’s true for the Wolves in the sense that leading scorers Edwards and Julius Randle need to make a positive impact if Minnesota is to down Los Angeles. But that impact may not always come in the form of points.

Wolves players this week acknowledged the Lakers will do everything in their power to get the ball out of Edwards’ hands. Edwards has noted his teammates have to be ready, and confident, when he finds sets them up to make shots.

Naz Reid, Donte DiVincenzo, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Jaden McDaniels and Mike Conley must take turns knocking down outside shots and attacking closeouts to make Los Angeles pay for its heavy attention on Edwards. Randle also will be a natural candidate to receive some of those passes, but he can’t get caught in an isolation game against any of the Lakers’ sturdy wings.

Ball and player movement will be especially critical against Los Angeles’ lengthy, organized defense.

“I think a lot of it is going to be trying to create distortion by drive and kick,” said veteran point guard Conley. “Moving the basketball, trying to get them moving a little bit. Because they do load up they do create a lot of help situations where they’re not just relying on the on-ball defender to get the stop. They’re relying on the gap help and the guy behind them, so for us it’s about being fast, being quick with our decisions, pushing the ball, getting out and really just trying to put a lot of pressure on the paint and make them have to move.”

Make Luka work

Speaking of making players move, that’s something Minnesota didn’t well enough in last year’s West Finals, specifically pertaining to Doncic on the defensive end. He was largely allowed to rest defensively while cooking the Wolves on the other end.

In fairness to Wolves coach Chris Finch and Co., Minnesota doesn’t have a bevy of perimeter isolation players on offense like, say, Boston. But there are ways to make Doncic work more defensively.

“I think it’s activity. We’ve got to play way more in transition than we have done against these guys, I think. Just play with a lot more activity on and off the ball,” Finch said. “There’s lots of things that you can do. I think it’s one of those marginal gains that you’ve got to do across the board, that you’ve got to do with every little thing that you do. And that’s how you can kind of make these guys work a little bit harder.”

Run Wolves, run

Much of the talk this week centered on Minnesota’s readiness to defend the Lakers’ home-run passes for easy transition layups. But the Wolves may need to be just as aggressive in getting out on the fast break.

Minnesota was 9 for 12 from the field in fast-break opportunities in its only matchup against the Luka Lakers on Feb. 27, with 23 points coming in transition. Aside from that, the Wolves shot 36% from the field.

Minnesota didn’t have Julius Randle or Rudy Gobert in that game, but the point stands that the Lakers’ length could give the Wolves offense fits in the half court. Any easy buckets the Wolves can nab could go a long way toward edging Los Angeles in the end.

A big Gobert

Gobert was Minnesota’s second-best — and perhaps most important — player over the final quarter of the regular season. The same will need to be true if Minnesota is to prevail in this first-round series.

As previously mentioned, the Lakers may have the defensive personnel and discipline to limit Minnesota’s offensive effectiveness. And they may simply have too many shot creators in Doncic, James and Austin Reaves for the Wolves to entirely shut down their offense.

So, Minnesota will likely have to win the possession game. That’s done, largely, by controlling the glass. Gobert has to be in the teens with his game-to-game rebounding totals, grabbing at least a few offensive rebounds a game while limiting the Lakers’ second-chance attempts on the other end.

Stay composed

There have been numerous times in recent years in which the Wolves seemed to unravel because of disputes with officiating. That could come to a head in this series. Edwards had to miss a game because of his volume of technical fouls this season, and the NBA had to step in to keep him from missing two.

The Lakers were third in the NBA in free-throw attempts per game this season. Doncic and Reeves are excellent at getting to the line.

Los Angeles also surrendered the seventh-fewest free-throws per game this season (20.4). Minnesota allowed the sixth fewest.

Should a few borderline calls go the Lakers’ way, will Minnesota manage to keep its composure?

“I think there’s a lot of things that you’ve got to do to stay focused right now,” Finch said. “We can’t control that. As a team we’ve done a better job down the stretch here of just getting on about the business of basketball, and that’s what it’s got to be.”

Edwards made the following declaration: “I won’t get no techs. I won’t say anything. I’m gonna be super quiet, 100 percent.”

Prediction

Lakers in 7 — Minnesota may very well win this series thanks to its depth, physicality and ability to hit open triples. But to do so, it’s going to have to prove itself in some tight spots against two of the players with earned reputations as athletes who are built for such environments.

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A World Tai Chi Day event is returning to Stillwater on April 26 to help raise money for the library and teach attendees about tai chi.

The family-friendly outdoor event will be held from 10:30 a.m. to noon rain or shine. It is hosted by Healing Within Acupuncture and Wellness Studio and will take place at the Stillwater Public Library terrace at 224 Third St. N. It includes different tai chi styles led by tai chi instructors from the area. Indoor seated tai chi also will be available.

No experience is necessary and the event is free to attend or observe.

Instructor Mary McDonald will lead several easy-to-follow movements for seated tai chi, which is ideal for those who are new to it, have mobility issues or are recovering from health issues.

Healing Within Studio will collect donations. Donations, along with T-shirt sales, will support Stillwater Public Library Foundation.

To donate directly to the library, go to stillwaterlibraryfoundation.org/ways-to-give. For more information, email hello@healingwithinacupuncture.com.

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