* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Rosetta mission

Blobrana · L

Rosetta is a robotic spacecraft of the European Space Agency on a mission to study the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta consists of two main elements: the Rosetta space probe and the Philae lander. The spacecraft was launched on 2 March 2004 on an Ariane V rocket and will reach the comet by mid 2014.
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Blobrana · L

It was a case of celestial hit and run. Two asteroids, both in the wrong place at the wrong time. The result: one big trail of debris and a case of mistaken identity. Now, however, ESA's comet-chaser Rosetta has unravelled the truth.
Using its OSIRIS camera, Rosetta made the breakthrough because it is far from Earth and so it could look at mystery object 'P/2010 A2' from a unique perspective. This showed that instead of being a comet, as first suspected, we are seeing the debris from a pair of colliding asteroids.
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Blobrana · L

ESA's Rosetta comet-chaser goes LEGO®

What does a scientist do to visualise a space journey? Build a model, of course. A model of Europe's Rosetta comet-chaser made out of LEGO® blocks started out in this small way and has grown into a high-fidelity Rosetta Lander Education Kit.
Engineering and art students of the University of Rome gathered yesterday to test the prototype of the Rosetta Lander Education Kit. Not only did they build the LEGO MINDSTORMS comet lander, they also learnt why ESA's mission is travelling all the way to Jupiter's orbit to rendezvous with comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
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Blobrana · L

A camera from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research delivers close-ups of the asteroid Lutetia

The ESA space probe Rosetta flew past the Lutetia planetoid at around 6 p.m. CEST on Saturday. The OSIRIS camera system, built and developed under the direction of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, provided unique images of this rendezvous. They not only show a large number of craters on the surface of the celestial body, but also individual rocks and parallel grooves.
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Blobrana · L

Probe takes detailed pictures of crater-covered asteroid

A European space probe headed toward its next target Sunday after sending back detailed images of an asteroid that scientists hope will increase understanding of how the solar system evolved.
Pictures of the asteroid Lutetia from the Rosetta probe's deep space fly-by Saturday are some of the most detailed ever taken, the European Space Agency said.
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Blobrana · L

The European Rosetta spacecraft has achieved a further milestone on its journey to the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. On 10 July 2010 at 17:45 CEST, the orbiter flew past asteroid Lutetia on its second and final pass of the asteroid belt at about 15 kilometres per second - 54,000 kilometres per hour - merely 3162 kilometres from the asteroid. The confirmation was delivered at 18:10 CEST to ESA's European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt. The German Aerospace Centre (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) is participating in this unique mission.
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Blobrana · L

Europe's Rosetta space probe has flown past the Asteroid Lutetia, returning a stream of scientific data for analysis.
The huge rock - about 120km in its longest dimension - is the biggest asteroid yet visited by a satellite.
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Blobrana · L

This image of asteroid 21 Lutetia was captured by the Narrow Angle Camera of the OSIRIS imaging system of the Rosetta spacecraft, at 03:00 CEST, 9th July, 2010, when it was approximately 2 million km away.

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CREDIT: (C) ESA 2010 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

Blobrana · L

On its way to a 2014 rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft, with NASA instruments aboard, will fly past asteroid Lutetia this Saturday, July 10.
The instruments aboard Rosetta will record the first close-up image of a metal asteroid. They will also make measurements to help scientists derive the mass of the object, understand the properties of the asteroid's surface crust, record the solar wind in the vicinity and look for evidence of an atmosphere. The spacecraft will pass the asteroid at a minimum distance of 3,160 kilometres and at a velocity of 15 kilometres per second.
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