Rosetta image of asteroid 21 Lutetia 9 July - 2 mn km from target

 

  CREDIT: (C) ESA 2010 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

The OSIRIS imaging team have just sent in an image! Modest, yes, but the target's in sight! :-)

It shows asteroid 21 Lutetia from a distance of 2 million km, rapidly decreasing, and was acquired by the Narrow Angle Camera of the OSIRIS imaging system on board ESA's Rosetta spacecraft on 9 July 2010 at around 03:00 CEST. Rosetta is due to make closest approach at 18:10 CEST 10 July. This image was acquired as part of the optical navigation campaign, in which images acquired by the OSIRIS scientific imager and by Rosetta's on-board navigation cameras are being used to refine estimates of Lutetia's orbital trajectory.

 

 

 

1. Posted by: therma cuts apteka • thermacuts • reply
   12-01-2011 • 23:55:44

   I can't wait for more articles! When will you update your interesting website?

2. Posted by: danielscuka • Overexposed • reply
   10-07-2010 • 10:28:30

   One comment: This image is actually quite overexposed so as to make the background stars visible, which is necessary for navigation. Thus, Lutetia is still 'invisible' in this picture. It's a bit like taking a picture of a lamp at night while trying to also see a firefly around it...

3. Posted by: Anton Szautner • • reply
   09-07-2010 • 23:11:46

   Either Lutetia is crenulated like nothing seen before, or specular reflection from local regions producing image bloom make its profile very curious. Both or a combination of these interpretations may be consistent with a metallic object.

   I do not recall any similarly long-range images with Steins (or, indeed with any other spacecraft encountering a small object) sporting such a peculiar profile.

   If any of this speculation on admittedly long-range imagery counts, this encounter looks like it may show us something quite unique!

4. Posted by: TheAnt • • reply
   09-07-2010 • 22:00:17

   Thank you for sharing the image, it already show a disk. Looks good, please release more so we can follow the progress.

   For Amruta: The speed will be constant from any practical viewpoint - now Rosetta moves rather far from the asteroid and the gravity of Lutetia is small indeed.

   Yet I bet ESA's Rosetta managers will be looking for very minute changes in the radio transmission caused by minute changes to the speed and path of the spacecraft as a means to find our more about Lutetia's mass and composition.

5. Posted by: Andrew Brown 3488 • Mass & Images. • reply
   09-07-2010 • 22:12:52

   You bet The Ant. 21 Lutetia's mass will be measured.

   I hope there will be some more imagery released after this one soon, before Rosetta has to break her link with Earth for the encounter.

   Already 21 Lutetia is showing a shape, but no surface details as yet.

   Andrew Brown.

6. Posted by: TheAnt • • reply
   09-07-2010 • 22:41:34

   Thank you for the heads-up mr Andrew Brown.
   Navcam tracking in 1h 19m (as of writing) and if my information is correct here.

   And yes I knew Rosetta will be silent during the pass so I stayed tuned on this page in hope for another glimpse before it was time for a nap. :p

7. Posted by: Amruta Mehta • • reply
   09-07-2010 • 20:55:43

   Great, thanks for sharing so quick!

   Does the speed remain constant as it apprpoaches Lutetia?