Rosetta flies by remote asteroid

Last Modified: 06 Sep 2008
Source: PA News

The European deep space probe Rosetta successfully completed a flyby of an asteroid millions of miles from earth, but its high resolution camera stopped shortly before the closest pass, space officials said.

Rosetta caught up with the Steins asteroid, also known as Asteroid 2867 in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The probe came within 500 miles of the asteroid.

Officials at the European Space Agency were not sure exactly what caused the camera to switch off.

"The software switched off automatically," said Gerhard Schwehm, the mission manager and head of solar systems science operations at ESA. "The camera has some software limits and we'll analyse why this happened later."

Another wide angle camera was able to take pictures and send them to the space centre, Schwehm said, adding that the overall outlook for the data was good.

Scientists will present pictures and discuss the data in Darmstadt, Germany.

The Rosetta craft was launched in March 2004 from French Guyana, and is now about 250 million miles from Earth.

The three mile diameter, irregularly shaped Steins Asteroid is being studied for keys that could help unlock some of the mysteries about the creation of the solar system.

"Dead rocks can say a lot," Mr Schwehm said.

Up until now, astronomers analysing asteroids have had to work with limited data from brief flybys, such as when ESA's Giotto probe swept by Halley's Comet in 1986, photographing long canyons, broad craters and 3,000-foot hills.

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