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ESA spacecraft set for flyby of Steins asteroid
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 05 - 09 - 2008


Scientists at the European Space
Agency are preparing for the first fly-by of an asteroid by
their deep-space explorer, Rosetta, on a mission to solve
the mystery of the birth of the solar system, according to AP.
Rosetta is set to rendezvous with the Steins asteroid,
also known as Asteroid 2867, just before 1900 GMT Friday at
a distance of just less than 500 miles (800 kilometers).
Already the craft, launched in March 2005, is some 250
million miles (400 million kilometers) away from Earth.
Once it flies by the irregularly shaped asteroid, it will
begin taking images and measurements.
The data and pictures will be sent to ESA's Darmstadt
control room and laboratories where they will be analyzed
and unveiled to the world on Saturday.
«Once we learn more about asteroids and comets, we have
reached another big step in understanding how planets are
formed too,» said Gerhard Schwehm, the Rosetta mission
manager at ESA.
The timing of the flyby means that the asteroid will be
illuminated by the sun, making it likely the transmitted
images will be clear and concise.
Astronomers have had to work with limited data from brief
flybys, such as when ESA's Giotto probe swept by Halley's
Comet in 1986, photographing long canyons, broad craters
and 3,000-foot hills.
Steins is Rosetta's first scientific target as it makes
its incursion into the asteroid belt located between the
orbits of Mars and Jupiter en route to its ultimate
destination, the comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which is
scheduled for 2014.


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