Rosetta flyby of Asteroid Steins, 5th September 2008 Options

[Rakhir]

Since I cannot reply to the Rosetta blog, I will post my gratitude and thanks to the team here...

Comments are still available in their blog.
I just posted one.
But you have to wait some time before it is displayed (moderation probably).

[Hungry4info]

They don't appear to be too well lined up to be more than a chance arrangement of several unrelated craters. The lighting angle certainly helps bring them out as Juramike suggests, but I wouldn't go as far as linking the craters either. Observe enough cratered bodies and you're bound to come up with an interesting "arrangement" and this is what the human eye excels at - finding patterns everywhere.

Very true indeed.
And in all honesty, as has been stated before... there doesn't seem to be a good reason why there should be a crater chain on such a small body anyway.

[Phil Stooke]

Another factor counting against the crater chain being more than a coincidence is the difference in sharpness and regularity of shape (hence, probable age) along the chain.

Here's the first frame in the movie, with a contrast-enhanced version.

Phil

[tty]

Does Phobos sport some crater chains?

Wouldn't prove anything - they could be secondaries from impacts on Mars.

[jsheff]

It reminds me of nothing as much as views of Atlas and Pan, Saturn's "flying saucer" moons:

They're embedded in the rings, though, and their shape is a result of ring material accumulation over time. That wouldn't work in the case of Steins, of course.

BTW, have they determined the spin axis for Steins, yet?

- John Sheff
Cambridge, MA

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[dvandorn]

Considering the shape of the body and the location of the large crater (hinting at an impact that *just* came short of being energetic enough to blast the entire body apart), what this looks like to me is:

1) A roughly disk-shaped object was hit broadside by an impactor.

2) The entire body stretched into the impact -- the "point" of the diamond is the deformation along the velocity vector of the impactor.

3) The shock wave crenelated the edge of the disk, causing what appears to be a crater chain along its circumference.

That's what it looks like to me...

-the other Doug

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Great flyby...

Well, a long wait has started with this Rosetta spacecraft underway to rendezvous with comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko by the year 2014. That would be about the time that New Horizons would get a decent view of some of the 6 billion Kuiper Belt Objects

[David]

Just where is Steins now anyway? How far away from the Sun, and in which direction?

[Hungry4info]

Another factor counting against the crater chain being more than a coincidence is the difference in sharpness and regularity of shape (hence, probable age) along the chain.

The more shallow craters appear to be the ones closest to the large crater. Is it possible that the large crater on "top" modified the density of the asteroid in the area around it? This may cause regolith to fill in the craters closer to the larger crater? Perhaps?

I'm trying to explore all possibilities.

[tedstryk]

Great flyby...

Well, a long wait has started with this Rosetta spacecraft underway to rendezvous with comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko by the year 2014. That would be about the time that New Horizons would get a decent view of some of the 6 billion Kuiper Belt Objects

Well, we still have the 2009 Earth Flyby to look forward to, and, more importantly, the July 2010 Lutetia flyby. With a 100 km diameter, it should be quite spectacular.

[lyford]

But you have to wait some time before it is displayed (moderation probably).

Well, it must be some automatic thing, since I ended up posting twice in a row thinking that my connection dropped...

[climber]

New montage is up.
OK, now I'm really going to try to get some sleep.
--Emily

Nice idea to put Steins close to Anne Frank, there are quite alike.
Trouble will come with Lutecia's fly by! You'll have to change your scale... or do the same we can see on a representation of the Solar System : the Sun is shown only partialy.
Thanks a lot anyway, this is an important piece of work

[Hungry4info]

Trouble will come with Lutecia's fly by! You'll have to change your scale... or do the same we can see on a representation of the Solar System : the Sun is shown only partialy. Thanks a lot anyway, this is an important piece of work

Also a problem when Dawn visits Vesta, then again when it visits Ceres.

[David]

Also a problem when Dawn visits Vesta, then again when it visits Ceres.

No problem, just use another image with a tiny Mathilde in one corner.

[centsworth_II]

No problem, just use another image with a tiny Mathilde in one corner.

Or a copy of the whole batch of smaller asteroids and comets, like below. Also, since Ceres is now a dwarf planet, perhaps it doesn't even belong in this group of visited bodies.