The European Space Agency is going to have about two hours to study the details of the asteroid Lutetia by capturing its images with its high resolution cameras on this weekend. These sophisticated cameras have already sent some details of the asteroid but its telescope has failed to determine the type of the asteroid. The asteroid is positioned at 280 million miles fro earth between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Its an opportunity for the ESA’s spacecraft Rosetta; its an comet chaser. The chaser will come as close as 1900 miles on Saturday and will have about two hours of time with it. The asteroid is known to the scientific fraternity since 150 years. From earth it is visible as a faint distant light very hard to distinguish it from the other stars that light up the night’s sky. The asteroid is 83.3 miles in diameter and a report about the asteroid is expected soon. This is the largest asteroid that circle in the belt between Mars and Jupiter that also has hundreds of other asteroids for its company in the belt.
Rosetta’s rendezvous in space started in since 2004 when it was launched by ESA to finally reach and start studying the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by 2014. This encounter with Lutetia will be the craft’s last encounter with any flying body in our solar system before if has its eyes fixed on the comet.
Lutetia is exciting the researchers since it might hold clues to the formation of the solar system with the big bang and it would be exciting to know how much the asteroid has changed over time. The asteroids are formed from the remnants of planets at a time when they are formed. Rosetta will try to determine Lutetia’s age, shape and whether the asteroid has a magnetic field and an exosphere. An exosphere is a very thin layer of gases between a celestial body’s surface and the rest of space; if it exists around Lutetia, analyzing it could help determine whether the asteroid is carbonaceous or metallic.
The Rosetta spacecraft will make its closest approach to Lutetia at 1544 GMT (1644 BST; 1744 CEST). Keep tuned to this space for more on the asteroids as the details come pouring in.
This will be the second time that the craft is coming in close proximity of an asteroid. Its first experience was with the asteroid Steins in 2008 that was much smaller in size than Lutetia but situated in the main belt like the latter.