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Asteroids: treasures of the past and a threat to the future

3 April 2006

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The Impact moment on the Don Quijote mission: The Orbiter spacecraft (Sancho) has retreated to a safe distance to observe how the Impactor spacecraft (Hidalgo) crashes into the asteroid. After the Impact Sancho will come closer and inspect the changes.

Credits: ESA - AOES Medialab

No reason for panic – yet

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The key moment of the Don Quijote mission: the Impactor spacecraft (Hidalgo) smashes into the asteroid while observed, from a safe distance, by the Orbiter spacecraft (Sancho)

Credits: ESA - AOES Medialab

Fossils of the Solar System

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The target asteroid of the Don Quijote mission as it could be seen from the Impactor spacecraft (Hidalgo) moments before the imipact takes place.

Credits: ESA - AOES Medialab

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An image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Our Solar System is home to one star, nine planets and dozens of planetary satellites. It also contains millions of asteroids and comets – the left-over debris from the cosmic construction site that created the planets and their moons.

Rosetta’s task is to study these primitive building blocks at close quarters so that scientists may gain new insights into the events that took place 4600 million years ago, during the birth of Earth and its planetary neighbours.

Credits: ESA and European Southern Observatory

Note for editors

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The moments before impact... The Impactor spacecraft (Hidalgo) heads towards the target asteroid.

Credits: ESA - AOES Medialab