Lutetia as though you were there
Publiée le 2010-07-11
Lutetia as though you were there
Asteroid Lutetia has been revealed as a battered world of many craters. ESA's Rosetta mission has returned the first close-up images of the asteroid showing it is most probably a primitive survivor from the violent birth of the Solar System.

The images show that Lutetia is heavily cratered, having suffered many impacts during its 4.5 billion years of existence. As Rosetta drew close, a giant bowl-shaped depression stretching across much of the asteroid rotated into view. The images confirm that Lutetia is an elongated body, with its longest side around 130km.

At closest approach, details down to a scale of 60 metres can be seen over the entire surface of Lutetia.

Puce The ESA Rosetta Blog
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