Rosetta encounters Lutetia, gains insight into giant asteroid

In what can be termed as the closest encounter with one of the largest asteroid, ever visited ESA led robotic spacecraft mission, Rosetta, raced past Lutetia as close as 3,200 kilometers, with the closest encounter at 18:10 CEST, when the spacecraft was just 3162 kilometers away from the giant asteroid.

A closer look at Lutetia
Rosetta, which had a first look of Lutetia in January 2007, has this time “triumphed at asteroid” and captured images like never before.

A closer look at the asteroid that orbits between Mars and Jupiter reveals that Lutetia's surface is battered with many craters, indicating that during the 4.5 billion years of existence, the primitive survivor has suffered many impacts.

The information gathered also confirm that Lutetia, discovered by French painter turned astronomer Hermann Goldschmidt in 1852, is hundred kilometers in diameter, has a elongated body, and its longest side measures 130 kilometers.

In a statement, David Southwood, ESA Director of Science and Robotic Exploration, said, “It has been a great day for exploration, a great day for European science. The clockwork precision is a great tribute to the scientists and engineers in our Member States in our industry and, not least, in ESA itself.”

Mysteries to be unraveled
Though the first look of the giant asteroid, through nearly 400 images, has revealed a lot about the primitive survivor's cratered surface, a lot more needs to be unlocked.

The data collected by Rosetta spacecraft, with the help of multi-wavelength cameras, spectrometers etc, will unravel the mysteries surrounding the composition of Lutetia. Some asteroids are a broken part of iron-rich cores of proto-planets or they may just be composed of carbon.

A closer look at the asteroid that orbits between Mars and Jupiter reveals that Lutetia's surface is battered with many craters, indicating that during the 4.5 billion years of existence, the primitive survivor has suffered many impacts.

Further, the influx of data will not only provide insight into how the solar system was formed but also unlock information about the dangers posed by the asteroids to Earth.

The scientists are expected to announce the findings at the Europlanet conference in Rome, Italy, in September this year.

Lutetia encounter coincides with Giotto mission
Rosetta's encounter with asteroid Lutetia has come on the same day when ESA's first deep space mission, Giotto, flew past comet Grigg-Skjellerup, as close as 200 kilometers, in 1992.

Giotto was originally designed to fly by Halley comet in 1986. The space craft did flew by Halley but the comet's dust smashed Giotto, thus 'sandblasting' its camera to destruction.

Though Halley's encounter damaged the spacecraft, it had enough fuel to skim past the comet Grigg-Skjellerup. So eighteen years ago, on the same day, Giotto raced past Grigg-Skjellerup.

The data collected during Grigg-Skjellerup rendezvous did suggest that the comet had split into two, but Giotto's camera failed to captured images.