This Saturday night / Sunday morning (Australian time), the European Space Agency’s Rosetta space craft will have a close flyby of the asteroid Lutetia. This is the first time a spacecraft has visited this asteroid, and astronomers both amateur and professional are curious to know what it looks like. The close encounter will be webcast live from the ESA headquarters, with the first images expected to be presented live at 7am AEST Sunday. A webcast schedule can be found here.
According to the media release, Rosetta is expected to pass the asteroid Lutetia at a distance of 3,162 km and a relative speed of 54,000 kilometers per hour at 2:10 am AEST on Sunday morning (11 July). The asteroid and comet at that time will be located some 454 million km from Earth.
If all goes well, the first pictures from the Lutetia flyby are expected to be released are expected to be released around 7am AEST on Sunday morning (11 of July 2010). I personally will have my fingers crossed. Rosetta’s last encounter with an asteroid didn’t go well. On September 5 2008, Rosetta encountered the asteroid 2867 Šteins at a distance of 800 km and the relatively slow speed of 8.6 km/s 30,960 kilometers an hour. Shortly before closest approach, Rosetta’s main camera went off line depriving us of high resolution images of the asteroid.
The Rosetta spacecraft was launched in 2004 with its final destination being comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It is expected to arriving at the comet in 2014. Once there, it will then observe the comet for 18 months, releasing a lander onto the comet in November 2014.
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.
