Shape and Physical Properties of Asteroid 21 Lutetia from OSIRIS Images
Abstract
The Rosetta spacecraft of the European Space Agency flew by the asteroid 21 Lutetia on July, 10, 2010 on its way to its final target, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. A total of 460 images have been acquired by OSIRIS during the flyby, with a minimum pixel scale of 64 m at closest approach (hereafter "CA") with the narrow angle camera. Several filters have been used, covering a wavelength range from the far UV (0.25 microns) to the end of the visible spectrum (1.0 microns). The phase angle went through 11°-0°-160°, reaching opposition 18 min before CA. We report here on a preliminary interpretation of the images of the asteroid acquired by OSIRIS, the imaging system aboard Rosetta. These images are combined with pre-flyby light curves and adaptive optics measurements to retrieve the shape and the rotational parameters of the asteroid. The bulk physical properties: size, surface, volume, moments of inertia, gravity field, are then extracted from the shape.
- Publication:
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AAS/Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting Abstracts #42
- Pub Date:
- October 2010
- Bibcode:
- 2010DPS....42.4303J