Rosetta Flyby finds a “Diamond”
June 11th 2009 02:44
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Images taken of the asteriod Steins during the flyby - ESA
The ESA comet hunter spacecraft Rosetta has captured some interesting pictures of slightly lumpy asteroid called Steins. Rosetta fly passed the asteroid on its destination with Comet 67P/Churyumov- Gerasimenko, Rosetta is to encounter the comet in 2014.
Steins is only a small body around 3 miles long and is shaped like a diamond. This particular asteroid belongs to a rare class of E type that has a consistency of silica (sand) with little iron within its makeup.
This particular type of asteroid has never come under close scrutiny before that why this flyby is a real bonus for astronomers. The images taken by the spacecraft showed many craters around 24 individual craters the largest being 2Km wide.
3-D image of asteroid Steins 2867
Seven prominent craters formed in a straight line suggesting that the impact formed when the asteroid was rotating after encountering a swarm of meteors.
Scientist will continue to study the images taken by Rosetta to try and find out why Steins has an unusually bright surface this maybe due to the fine structure on the material makeup of the asteroid. The study of asteroids is vital to our understanding and the possible effects of an asteroid encounter with Earth.
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Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
Comment by CarlCan
Astroearth
No chance of collision this time !!!