Rosetta meets asteroid Lutetia in deep space. Credit: ESA/C. Carreau
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft is on track to zoom past asteroid 21 Lutetia on July 10. The event marks the largest asteroid ever visited by a space probe.
Will it look anything like this artist’s sketch?
Asteroid Lutetia is a major scientific target of ESA’s Rosetta’s mission, most of the orbiter and lander instruments will be on for flyby, studying the asteroid’s surface, dust environment, exosphere, magnetic field, mass and density.
Preparations for Lutetia flyby have been underway for a number of months by scientists and engineers at ESA, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and two dozen institutes and universities in Europe and the USA. In the past weeks, activities at the Agency, and especially within the mission’s science and operations teams, have intensified.
Rosetta was launched in March 2004. Its main objective is to orbit the comet 67 P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko – dispatching a lander onto its surface in 2014.
On its way, Rosetta passed asteroid Steins in 2008.
These flybys with asteroids prove very interesting for scientists as the space rocks always offer surprises.
The close pass with Lutetia will allow around two hours of good imaging with first pictures expected later Saturday.
Keep an Internet eye on this site around 12 p.m. eastern time for updates:
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Rosetta/index.html
You’ll be able to watch the live fly-by webcast from ESA/ESOC at:
http://www.livestream.com/eurospaceagency
LD/CSE