Asteroid Lutetia as seen by Europe's Rosetta spacecraft. Credit: ESA
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft has zoomed by asteroid 21 Lutetia today.
The first images have reached the ground from the spacecraft. The event marks the largest asteroid ever visited by a space probe. More imagery relayed from Rosetta to Earth is expected later today.
Asteroid Lutetia is a major scientific target of ESA’s Rosetta’s mission. The spacecraft’s onboard instruments appear to have successfully gathered new data on the asteroid’s surface, dust environment, exosphere, magnetic field, mass and density.
Europe’s Rosetta was launched in March 2004.
The probe’s main objective is to orbit the comet 67 P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko – dispatching a lander onto its surface in 2014.
You can watch the live fly-by webcast from ESA at:
http://www.livestream.com/eurospaceagency
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