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ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft closes on Minor Planet Lutetia

The European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft is getting ready for a flyby of the Minor Planet Lutetia at 2:10 a.m. AEST on Sunday 11 July 2010.

ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft flies past Minor Planet (2867) Steins. Image courtesy ESA.

Rosetta will pass within 3,200 kilometers of the asteroid’s surface during its flypast. The close pass will allow around 2 hours of good imaging with the spacecraft immediately beaming the data back to Earth.

The European Space Agency will be webcasting events starting at 1 a.m.  AEST on Sunday 11 July 2010.   More information about the webcast and the Rosetta Mission’s 2014 encounter with  comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko can be found at http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Rosetta/ Rosetta’s ultimate destination is Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It will orbit the comet and deposit a lander on the comet then study the comet over the period of one Earth year.

Lutetia was discovered on 15 November 1852 by Hermann Goldschmidt from the balcony of his apartment in Paris. The name Lutetia derives from the Latin name for Paris. Further information on Minor Planet Lutetia can be found here and here.

Story based on NASA media release and ESA information.

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