William Atkins
Saturday, 06 September 2008 22:08
Science -
Space
Page 2 of 3
The flyby of the asteroid occurred in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter at about 2.41 astronomical units (AU), or approximately 224 million miles (360 million kilometers) and at a relative speed of 5.3 miles (8.6 kilometers) per second.
The flyby was deemed a successful even though its high-resolution camera stopped unexpectedly before the deep-space probe reached its closest approach to the asteroid.
ESA mission manager Gerhard Schwehm stated,
“The software switched off automatically. The camera has some software limits and we'll analyze why this happened later." [Associated Press: “
Spacecraft flies by remote asteroid, camera stops”]
Rosetta found over 23 craters, with a size of over 200 meters in width, on the asteroid. The largest crater found was one about 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) in width.
The diameter of the asteroid was found to be slightly larger than what scientists had measured earlier.
Steins is thought be astronomers to come from larger asteroids that were destroyed early in the life of our solar system. It probably is made up of silicate minerals with little or no iron.
From data produced by
Rosetta, the diamond-shaped asteroid is now thought to be 3.1 miles (5 kilometers) in diameter, which is slightly larger than the earlier measurement of 3 miles (4.8 kilometers).
In fact Uwe Keller, principal investigator for the Osiris imaging system (Max Planck Institute for solar system research, Lindau, Germany), stated,
"Šteins looks like a diamond in the sky." [Reuters: “
European space probe completes asteroid fly by”]
Why is the study of asteroids important to us on Earth? Please read page three.
