Image: ESA 2010 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
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The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft is doing a little sightseeing on its decadelong cruise through the inner solar system and beyond. Rosetta (launched in 2004) will not reach its primary target, Comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko, until 2014, but in the meantime it has been checking up on some of the denizens of the Asteroid Belt. In 2008 the probe buzzed Asteroid Steins at a distance of just 800 kilometers, and in July of this year Rosetta swung past the much larger Asteroid Lutetia at a distance of 3,160 kilometers.
The flyby produced a number of up-close observations of Lutetia that astronomers will use to investigate its composition and history. The visit should also help clear up which family of asteroids Lutetia belongs to—the C-type of primitive carbonaceous bodies or the more metallic M-type asteroids.
Some answers about the asteroid's true nature are beginning to emerge as researchers analyze the data collected by Rosetta. A number of flyby-related talks and presentations are on the docket for the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences, being held this week in Pasadena, Calif. During an October 4 press conference at the meeting, Rita Schulz of the European Space Agency gave some preliminary information about the flyby, including a walk-through of some of Rosetta's photographic portraits of the asteroid.
Click here to see Lutetia as Rosetta did during its July rendezvous.
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14 Comments
Add CommentThe photos are wonderfull but it struck me that all the craters pockmarking the surface appear perpendicular to the surface, regardless of the orientation of the face. I would have expected to see some evidence of an occaisional "glancing blow". Does anyone have an explanation?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am not a scientist, just curious.
kennymac825...nice observation...anyone?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlmost all of our moon's craters are nearly circular too. The reason is that if an incoming object impacts the surface with enough energy, it will quickly vaporize (along with part of the surface) with spherical symmetry, causing a circular crater. All but the most oblique impact angles have this result.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSkeebo.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt makes sense. Thanks for the insight.
the photh that shows the distant saturn..
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisit is just spectacular
Just how huge is this asteroid?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRoughly 80 miles on the long axis. Basically big enough to end life on Earth or make someone very rich if it is metallic and they mine it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe images seem to be rendered out of a CG software. and not from a camera. specially the last one of the spaceship.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe last one of the spaceship is an 'artist's conception'.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSkeebo, I don't see that your explanation makes sense with regard to the laws of physics and nature which hold throughout the universe. I could see a slow 'plop' creating a circular hole, or a perpendicular hammer blow as kennymac825 has observed, but not an impact that occurs with 'enough energy.' A higher energy impact would not necessarily vaporize upon contact, instead of kicking up more than a little dust and leaving a splatter pattern in the direction of the blow, same as in a car accident on earth. I stand with Kenny, who has eyes to see the obvious.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRohanrego, you make a stellar point. JDahiya is correct that the space probe picture is a piece of artwork. I am not familiar with any graphic arts software by CG Software, but you could easily craft Lutetia's face by hand and photograph it at various angles. You could reposition the best take if the face turned out to be too far down in the lower righthand corner of the photo, and then you could PhotoShop the black background on the bottom and right sides. Who would be that sloppy and inattentive to detail? A aging day-night-reversed astronomer who needs to keep the funding coming in? The only other candidate would have to be someone eager to expose how gullible the public is, and how incapable people are of spotting blatant visual anomalies.
Does anyone have a way to fact-check this stuff that's being reported as legitimate? The older I get, the more memories I have of reading that this kind of thing could all be made up, including the moon walk. There were people back in 1969 who were instantly crying foul about the 'doctored' moon photos.
I hate being a pure skeptic, though skepticism is the healthiest first reaction. What I want is confirmation of legitimacy, and that is impossible when the only source of information is the scientific team working on a project like Rosetta. Their salaries and grant monies are at risk if they can't show substantial results coming from their millions of dollars.
I Googled (Lion God) & found this great artist's depiction of a Lion God (this url goes directly to the Lion God picture):
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Lion God - Photography by HIAB-X Matthias Plunkett
[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=asteroid-21-lutetia&posted=1&posted=1&posted=1#comments]
I can't copy the photo and paste it here, but print out a copy of the Lutetia face (the one looking straight at you), photocopy it at 165%, trace the outline and the main facial features onto a blank sheet of paper (I used plexiglass on a light box, but it can be done against a window), and compare it to a similar tracing of a printout of this Lion God. Line up the eye areas. Look at the proportions of the eyes and nose. The eyes are in the same place. The size of the broad bridge of the nose between the eyes is the same. The Lutetia lion's nose is bent towards the right side of the face (from its own perspective). The bottom of the shadow under the Lutetia lion's nose matches the bottom of the Lion God's nose. The bottom edge of the Lutetia lion's teeth coincide with the line marking the Lion God's mouth.
In a different photo, the 'crescent' view of Lutetia is from the left side, in profile, and shows the feline contour of the lion's nose and its brow and eye. The two promontories are the tip of the nose and the ridge of the brow.
I Googled (Lion God) & found this great artist's depiction of a Lion God (this url goes directly to the Lion God picture):
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Lion God - Photography by HIAB-X Matthias Plunkett
[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=asteroid-21-lutetia&posted=1&posted=1&posted=1#comments]
I can't copy the photo and paste it here, but print out a copy of the Lutetia face (the one looking straight at you), photocopy it at 165%, trace the outline and the main facial features onto a blank sheet of paper (I used plexiglass on a light box, but it can be done against a window), and compare it to a similar tracing of a printout of this Lion God. Line up the eye areas. Look at the proportions of the eyes and nose. The eyes are in the same place. The size of the broad bridge of the nose between the eyes is the same. The Lutetia lion's nose is bent towards the right side of the face (from its own perspective). The bottom of the shadow under the Lutetia lion's nose matches the bottom of the Lion God's nose. The bottom edge of the Lutetia lion's teeth coincide with the line marking the Lion God's mouth.
In a different photo, the 'crescent' view of Lutetia is from the left side, in profile, and shows the feline contour of the lion's nose and its brow and eye. The two promontories are the tip of the nose and the ridge of the brow.
I Googled (Lion God) & found this great artist's depiction of a Lion God (this url goes directly to the Lion God picture):
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Lion God - Photography by HIAB-X Matthias Plunkett
[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=asteroid-21-lutetia&posted=1&posted=1&posted=1#comments]
I can't copy the photo and paste it here, but print out a copy of the Lutetia face (the one looking straight at you), photocopy it at 165%, trace the outline and the main facial features onto a blank sheet of paper (I used plexiglass on a light box, but it can be done against a window), and compare it to a similar tracing of a printout of this Lion God. Line up the eye areas. Look at the proportions of the eyes and nose. The eyes are in the same place. The size of the broad bridge of the nose between the eyes is the same. The Lutetia lion's nose is bent towards the right side of the face (from its own perspective). The bottom of the shadow under the Lutetia lion's nose matches the bottom of the Lion God's nose. The bottom edge of the Lutetia lion's teeth coincide with the line marking the Lion God's mouth.
In a different photo, the 'crescent' view of Lutetia is from the left side, in profile, and shows the feline contour of the lion's nose and its brow and eye. The two promontories are the tip of the nose and the ridge of the brow.
Sorry, everybody ... I couldn't figure out why my third post wasn't showing up under the second one, so I kept trying. They were out of sight on the next page. If I could I would delete the multiples!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this