Rosetta flies past asteroid Lutetia
Posted: Sun, Jul 11, 2010, 12:18 PM ET (1618 GMT)
ESA's Rosetta spacecraft flew past the asteroid Lutetia on Saturday, the largest asteroid to date visited by a spacecraft. The spacecraft made its closest approach to the asteroid, at a distance of 3,162 kilometers, at 12:10 pm EDT (1610 GMT) Saturday. Images returned by the spacecraft revealed an elongated, cratered body about 130 kilometers lin diameter on its longest axis. Scientists believe the asteroid is a metal-rich body, although previous groundbased observations have revealed characteristics similar to C-type primitive bodies. The flyby is the latest milestone for the mission, launched in 2004, whose ultimate destination is the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta will rendezvous with the comet in late 2014 and deploy a spacecraft to land on the comet's nucleus.
ESA's Rosetta spacecraft flew past the asteroid Lutetia on Saturday, the largest asteroid to date visited by a spacecraft. The spacecraft made its closest approach to the asteroid, at a distance of 3,162 kilometers, at 12:10 pm EDT (1610 GMT) Saturday. Images returned by the spacecraft revealed an elongated, cratered body about 130 kilometers lin diameter on its longest axis. Scientists believe the asteroid is a metal-rich body, although previous groundbased observations have revealed characteristics similar to C-type primitive bodies. The flyby is the latest milestone for the mission, launched in 2004, whose ultimate destination is the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta will rendezvous with the comet in late 2014 and deploy a spacecraft to land on the comet's nucleus.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
|
|
news links
|
|
Friday, March 13
Firefly Aerospace to Announce Fourth Quarter 2025 Financial Results on March 19, 2026
GlobeNewswire — 5:35 am ET (0935 GMT) ESA’s HydroGNSS on track to scout for water
ESA — 5:34 am ET (0934 GMT) FCC chair slams Amazon for slow satellite launches after it opposed SpaceX data center plan
CNBC — 5:34 am ET (0934 GMT) Falcon 9 launch of Starlink satellites scheduled from Vandenberg SFB early Friday morning
KEYT-TV Santa Barbara, CA — 5:33 am ET (0933 GMT) Better Signal: 1,600 Starlink Satellites Move Into Lower Orbits
PC Magazine — 5:33 am ET (0933 GMT) |
