BERLIN — The European Space Agency has taken the closest look yet at asteroid Lutetia in an extraordinary quest about 280 million miles in outer space between Mars and Jupiter.
Comet-chaser Rosetta transmitted its first pictures from the largest asteroid ever visited by a satellite Saturday night after it flew by Lutetia as close as 1,900 miles, ESA said in Darmstadt, Germany.
“These are fantastic and exciting pictures,” said space agency scientist Rita Schulz in a webcast presentation. She said it would take several weeks before all 400 pictures and all data from the instruments aboard Rosetta would come through to Earth.
Lutetia was discovered about 150 years ago but for a long time was little more than a point of light to those on Earth. Only recent high-resolution ground-based imaging has given a vague view.
Lutetia is thought to be 83.3 miles in diameter with a “pronounced elongation.”
Scientists hope to find in the information and images gathered by Rosetta clues to the history of comets and asteroids and of the solar system, Schulz said.
