Rosetta flyby of Asteroid Lutetia Options

[Guest_cassioli_*]

FYI, I checked with the science team, and there will not be any more images released from the flyby until after the initial results are presented at a conference in September.

have Steins "further images" ever been released after first ones?

[IM4]

I am watching Exploration of Near Earth Objects (NEO) Objectives Workshop webcast now. While giviing a talk about ESA activity in this field, M.Coradini presented some latest results from Lutetia flyby. See the screenshot I've made.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[cndwrld]

have Steins "further images" ever been released after first ones?

No, afraid not.

[Guest_cassioli_*]

No, afraid not.

so I think it's over with images for Lutetia too.

[cotopaxi]

A few points to recently raised topics:

1) No NAVCAM images of the Lutetia flyby were downlinked (except for navigation images with the Asteroid as a point source).
2) While I don't know the image release plans after EPSC, all images (Steins and Lutetia) will be archived by PSA and PDS at some point. For Steins, the process is quite advanced as far as I can tell (no, I don't know the publication date).
3) The mass of Lutetia has been accurately determined from the flyby. Densities I have heard talking about are between 2.5 and slightly above 3. A better determination is awaiting an improved volume estimate.

[djellison]

2) While I don't know the image release plans after EPSC, all images (Steins and Lutetia) will be archived by PSA and PDS at some point.

Given that OSIRIS has not archived a single thing to the PSA since launch more than 6 years ago - I will not be holding my breath.

I just hope the engineers on the Rosetta team can start dispatching the 6.5 year of Navcam imagery into the PSA or elsewhere to give space enthusiasts of European origin something to be as proud of as we can be as proud of VMC on MEX.

[cotopaxi]

Well, while the process is indeed slow, images are not archived one by one. Most data sets are there, and time is spent on negotiations how to have them meet the PSA and PDS standards. Scientific data sets as the asteroid flybys additionally go through a scientific review. Once all is done, much of the mission data can be released simultaneously.


NAVCAM data are foreseen to be archived in PSA at some point, but it´s a low priority (the NAVCAMs are no science instruments).

[Stu]

ESA's making good progress re image release, but seriously, aaaggghhhh!!!!!! Stop faffing and fannying about, ESA, bite the bullet and follow the MER/CASSINI example and post raw images asap, for the world to see and enjoy, and for people like our very own Image Mages to get stuck into make beautiful images from.

Ees seemples! (eek!)

[CAP-Team]

Maybe they are afraid that we can make better pictures out of the raw images than they can

[ugordan]

Well, any picture is better than no picture so in a way that fear is justified...

[Paolo]

a paper presented at the AGU fall meeting: Detection of Water in the Exosphere of (21) Lutetia
as one of the papers on Stardust results puts it: “the distinction between comets and asteroids is, in many cases, simply a matter of aging (loss of volatiles) and orbital parameters”

[Phil Stooke]

Names for features on Lutetia:

http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/images/L...earfeatures.pdf

More information here:

http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Page/LUTETIA/target
(some names are not shown on that image)


Phil

[Phil Stooke]

Using just that crater name information I have made a VERY preliminary map of Lutetia in cylindrical projection, mainly to get an idea of what a map might look like. Here are the steps involved, in two illustrations.



A: plot the crater locations on a polar grid.
B: use A to estimate locations of grid lines (0, 30, 60 N, 0, 90, 180, 270 long.) on the image with crater names.
C: use that grid to estimate (VERY crudely) where grid lines might lie on other images.



top: roughly reproject the image to fit the grid (only using the transformations in Photoshop)
bottom: use polar coordinates distortion to reproject that to cylindrical, and add a few extensions south of the equator.

Very crude, but it gives an idea of image coverage and coordinates. Within a year we will probably have a published map which can be used as control for a precise mosaic.

Phil

[Paolo]

It came as a complete surprise to me: a triplet of papers in this week's Science
Images of Asteroid 21 Lutetia: A Remnant Planetesimal from the Early Solar System
Asteroid 21 Lutetia: Low Mass, High Density
The Surface Composition and Temperature of Asteroid 21 Lutetia As Observed by Rosetta/VIRTIS

[Holder of the Tw...]

Edited

There was also an article published at a popular web site stating that Lutetia still has a molten core. This is not true. The core solidified long ago.