Coverage of the Rosetta mission as she makes a series of complex gravity assist manoeuvres around Earth (Mar 2005, Nov 2007, Nov 2009) and Mars (Feb 2007), plus the exciting encounters with Asteroids Steins (Sep 2008) and Lutetia (Jul 2010). News and updates from the Rosetta Dedicated Control Room at ESOC, ESA's European Space Operations Centre, Darmstadt, Germany.

• How does Lutetia compare to the other asteroids and comets visited by spacecraft?
  

  The Planetary Society's Emily Lakdawalla has posted an excellent, updated "Comets and Asteroids" poster showing, to scale, all such bodies visited by spacecraft so far.

  The latest addition is, of course, 21 Lutetia!

  She's done an excellent job of correlating images sizes and scales. Access her full post and the full-size image here. -- Daniel

   

   

   

   

   

  
  
  
• LUTETIA IN THE LIGHT
  

  A really nice way to end our Lutetia fly-by coverage! Stuart Atkinson, one of our regular blog visitors, runs his own excellent science & astronomy outreach efforts in the UK (visit his site: Cumbrian Skies). Stuart's sent in a poem this morning in celebration of Rosetta's fabulous results of yesterday. Thanks Stuart! -- Daniel

  For all these years you were merely
  A smear of light through our telescopes
  On the clearest, coldest night; a hint
  Of a glint, just a few pixels wide
  On even your most perfectly-framed portraits.
  But now, now we see you!
  Swimming out of the dark - a great
  Stone shark, your star-tanned skin pitted
  And pocked, scarred after aeons of drifting
  Silently through the endless ocean of space.
  Here on Earth our faces lit up as we saw
  You clearly for the first time; eyes wide
  With wonder we traced the strangely familiar
  Grooves raked across your sides,
  Wondering if Rosetta had doubled back to Mars
  And raced past Phobos by mistake –
   
  Then you were gone, falling back into the black,
  Not to be seen by human eyes again for a thousand
  Blue Moons or more. But we know you now,
  We know you; you’ll never be just a speck of light again.
  

   
  © Stuart Atkinson 2010 

   

   

  
  
  
• Lutetia closest approach images
  

  All images credit/copyright:

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

   

  At a distance of 36 000 km, the OSIRIS Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) took this image catching the planet Saturn in the background.  

  

   

  Farewell Lutetia!

  

   

  Approach images of Asteroid Lutetia. The first image was taken at 06:18 (about 9.5 hours before closest approach, 510000 kms from the asteroid), the last one at 14:15 (about 1.5 hours before closest approach, 81000 km from the asteroid.). The resolution changes from 9.6 km/px to 1.5 km/px.

   

   

  Final sequence of images before closest approach (CA-8, CA-4:40, CA-2, CA-1:50)

  

   

  Zoom into detail with grooves and craters.

  

   Zoom in on a possible landslide and boulders at the highest resolution.

   

   

  
  
  
• First pre-flyby images now available!
  

  First pre-flyby images now available! Largest view of Lutetia shows asteroid at a distance of 80,000 km. Better yet to come!!

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

  

   

   

   

   

   

  
  
  
• Live webcast starting 18:00 CEST