News from Space.....
The Rosetta spacecraft has captured the first, high-quality
pictures of the "Lutetia" asteroid.
The probe also searched for evidence of a highly tenuous
atmosphere and magnetic effects, while studying surface composition
as well as density.
According to Holger Sierks of the Max Planck Institute, Lutetia
is "heavily cratered" from sustaining multiple impacts over the
course of its 4.5 billion years of existence.
"As Rosetta drew close, a giant bowl-shaped depression
stretching across much of the asteroid rotated into view. The
images confirm that Lutetia is an elongated body, with its longest
side around 130km," said Sierks.
"I think this is a very old object. Tonight we have seen a
remnant of the Solar System's creation."
Indeed, Lutetia has remained a mystery for many years, with
ground-based telescopes often presenting confusing
characteristics.
In some respects, Lutetia resembles a 'C-type' asteroid - a
primitive body left over from the formation of the Solar System.
In others, it looks like an 'M-type,' which is associated with
iron meteorites typically reddish in appearance and thought to be
"core fragments" of much larger objects.
The new images and the data will help scientists determine a
definite classification for Lutetia sometime in the near
future.
In the meantime, the ESA-designed
Rosetta is on its way to a 2014 rendezvous with
the Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet.
The
probe will accompany the comet for months, from
near the orbit of Jupiter down to its closest approach to the
Sun.
Rosetta is then expected to launch the Philae lander, which has
been tasked with exploring the surface of the comet's nucleus.