OSIRIS view of asteroid (21) Lutetia
Date: 03 January 2007
Copyright: ESA/MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
This animated sequence shows asteroid (21) Lutetia, and is composed of images obtained with the OSIRIS instrument on 2 and 3 January 2007. The images were obtained during a 36-hour remote-sensing observation campaign of the asteroid, from a distance of about 245 million kilometres.
Lutetia is the near-stationary source just to the right of the image centre. The background stars are seen moving across the field of view as the camera tracks the asteroid. In addition, there are several cosmic ray events scattered across the field.
Together with asteroid (2867) Steins, asterodi (21) Lutetia is one of the two target asteroids that Rosetta will study during its long trek to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gersimenko. The two asteroids were visited at close range in September 2008 and July 2010, respectively.