Rosetta Discovers Haunting Beauty in Deep Space

July 14, 2010: The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft has beamed back close-up photographs of asteroid Lutetia, an ancient, cratered relic from the dawn of the solar system. Scientists are abuzz about the stunning images, which reveal a world lot of haunting, alien beauty.
"I've never seen anything like it," says Claudia Alexander, project scientist for the U.S. Rosetta Project. "It looked as though it could have been fractured off of a mother asteroid – it was all angles and flat planes, ancient impacts overlaid by newer ones, covered by dust of some kind."

Link science.nasa.gov...
And here is a couple of images.








I liked this bit

And then there's the perplexing appearance that boulders rolled down Lutetian slopes at some point.
"If that is indeed what we're seeing, the question becomes 'what could have caused the rolling? Perhaps the asteroid spun-up, spun-down, or experienced some orbital irregularity. It's not clear right now that the asteroid is subject to the forces that could cause these things. This is another issue for further study."

So i wonder what caused the rolling boulders i hope they get some closer images but this is fine for now its just amazing what is out there.
Hope you like visit the link for more.

Thankyou

I love the third picture with saturn in the background. Great pics! Thanks for sharing!

Why look at that particular asteroid? Where is it located? Most importantly, where's it headed? Sorry if this is already common knowledge, I'm not familar with this one.

reply to post by sickofitall2012


its prime target, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014,

It was in the article so we have to wait till 2014 to see what its real target looks like close up.

I have found a little more on this mission.

ESA PR 15-2004. Today the Rosetta Science Working Team has made the final selection of the asteroids that Rosetta will observe at close quarters during its journey to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Steins and Lutetia lie in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Rosetta’s scientific goals always included the possibility of studying one or more asteroids from close range. However, only after Rosetta’s launch and its insertion into interplanetary orbit could the ESA mission managers assess how much fuel was actually available for fly-bys. Information from the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Germany enabled Rosetta’s Science Working Team to select a pair of asteroids of high scientific interest, well within the fuel budget.
The selection of these two excellent targets was made possible by the high accuracy with which the Ariane 5 delivered the spacecraft into its orbit. This of course leaves sufficient fuel for the core part of the mission, orbiting Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for 17 months when Rosetta reaches its target in 2014.

Linkwww.innovations-report.com...

Hope this helps.

Thankyou

The picture with Saturn in the background is beautiful. S&F

I wonder how close they are going to get to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Still a long wait yet

Thankyou

Thank you for posting, the images are very interesting! I can never quite put my finger on it, but somehow these types of images always seem quite stark, lonely, almost. As if you can "feel" the vacuum of space ....

Originally posted by sickofitall2012
Why look at that particular asteroid? Where is it located? Most importantly, where's it headed? Sorry if this is already common knowledge, I'm not familar with this one.

Convenient location on its way to the comet was probably the main decider. Size and age were also probably motivators. It's located between mars and jupiter in the asteroid belt where it will remain. Here's the orbit diagram for the asteroid:
ssd.jpl.nasa.gov...