ESA - Rosetta - Perfect sight: Rosetta cameras track asteroid target

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Perfect sight: Rosetta cameras track asteroid target

18 August 2008

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Asteroid Steins as seen by Rosetta's OSIRIS camera

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Asteroid Steins imaged by Rosetta's OSIRIS camera on 7/11 August 2008. On these dates, Rosetta was approximately 21 million and 19 million km, respectively, from asteroid Steins.

Credits: ESA ©2007 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

Daily imaging

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On its way to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Rosetta is targeting two asteroids for study: (2867) Steins, on 5 September 2008, and (21) Lutetia on 10 June 2010.

Credits: ESA, image by AOES Medialab

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Asteroid Steins seen by Rosetta's navigation camera

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Asteroid Steins is the tiny white dot in the centre of the two concentric circles, as seen by Rosetta's Navigation Camera "A" in the morning of 4 August, when the spacecraft was approximately 24 mn kms from Steins; this was only the first in a series of steadily better images as Rosetta closed the range.

On this day, the asteroid was still fainter than the nominal detection limit of the camera. The larger surrounding white spots are stars; almost all other small white spots are artefacts from the camera's CCD sensor (known as 'pixel dark current'), which considerably degrades the quality of the image. The asteroid was found within 3 arcseconds of its predicted position.

Credits: ESA

ESA's comet chaser

Spacecraft Operations

Where is Rosetta now?

Rosetta starts tracking asteroid Steins Intense preparations for Rosetta's asteroid visit Rosetta awakes from hibernation for asteroid encounter The Moon and Europe - Rosetta OSIRIS images Rosetta: OSIRIS’ view of Earth by night

OSIRIS (Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System)Debris of the Solar System: Asteroids Asteroids: The discovery of asteroids Asteroids: Families of asteroids Asteroids: Structure and composition of asteroids