Rosetta Prepares for Meet-Up With Asteroid Next Week

By Nancy Atkinson - August 25, 2008 07:21 AM UTC | Space Exploration

[/caption]

ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft will make an historic encounter with asteroid (2867) Steins on September 5, 2008 at 20:58 CEST (Central European Summer Time), 2:58 pm EDT (US Eastern Daylight Time.) A few days ago, Rosetta conducted a successful trajectory correction maneuver using images from the spacecraft's cameras to calculate the asteroid's location, to optimize its trajectory for the fly-by. Rosetta will rendezvous with the asteroid while one its way to its primary mission, to visit comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko. At its closest approach to the asteroid, the spacecraft will be just 800 km from Steins.

At closest approach, however, the spacecraft will not be in communication with Earth. First ground contact with the spacecraft to verify a successful flyby will occur about an hour and half after the encounter. The first images and results will be available for presentation to the media during a press conference on Saturday, September 6 at 12:00 CEST.

[caption id="attachment_17302" align="alignnone" width="250" caption="Artist's impression of Rosetta and Asteroid Steins. Credit: ESA"]

[/caption]

Click here for an animation of Rosetta's flyby.

Steins is Rosetta’s first nominal scientific target. The study of asteroids is extremely important as they represent a sample of Solar System material at different stages of evolution â€" key to understanding the origin of our own planet and of our planetary neighborhood. Rosetta will also encounter (21) Lutetia on June 10, 2010.

We'll post the images and information from the flyby here on Universe Today as soon as they are available.

Source:

ESA

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com