Friday, July 16, 2010

An artist's concept of ESA's Rosetta spacecraft approaching comet Churyuomov-Gerasimenko.
ESA

PHOTOS OF THE DAY... Today’s entry is devoted to all the cool images taken by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft last Saturday...when it flew past asteroid Lutetia on its way to comet Churyuomov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta flew within 2,000 miles of the rocky, 80-mile-in-diameter object, which according to the mission's scientists has stayed untouched throughout most of the 4.6-billion-year history of our solar system. Lutetia is the largest asteroid visited by spacecraft so far. NASA's Dawn space probe is scheduled to arrive at asteroid Vesta, which is about 326-miles-in-diameter, in August of next year.

An image of asteroid Lutetia, with Saturn in the background, that was taken by ESA's Rosetta spacecraft on July 10, 2010.

The Rosetta spacecraft will arrive at comet Churyuomov-Gerasimenko in May of 2014, and orbit the comet for more than a year. During that time, it will observe the icy body while dropping a small German-made lander named Philae onto Churyuomov-Gerasimenko’s surface. Click here to see more images that Rosetta took of Lutetia.

An image of asteroid Lutetia that was taken by ESA's Rosetta spacecraft on July 10, 2010.

A close-up image of asteroid Lutetia that was taken by ESA's Rosetta spacecraft on July 10, 2010.

An image of asteroid Lutetia as ESA's Rosetta spacecraft departs from it on July 10, 2010.

Asteroid Lutetia images courtesy of ESA 2010 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS / UPD / LAM / IAA / RSSD / INTA / UPM / DASP / IDA
Posted by Richard Par at 12:29 PM
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