Search Publications

New visible spectra and mineralogical assessment of (21) Lutetia, a target of the Rosetta mission

Lazzarin, M.; Marchi, S.; Magrin, S. +1 more

The Rosetta spacecraft, launched on March 2nd 2004, in the course of its journey to the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (encounter foreseen in 2014), will fly past two asteroids: (2867) Steins and (21) Lutetia. On September 5th 2008 (2867) Steins was encountered. In this paper, we present two visible spectra of (21) Lutetia of different spectral r…

Photometric and spectroscopic investigation of 2867 Steins, target of the Rosetta mission. Ground-based results prior to the Rosetta fly-by

Barucci, M. A.; Fornasier, S.; Dotto, E. +8 more

Context: Rosetta is the cornerstone mission of ESA devoted to the study of minor bodies of the Solar System. During its journey to the comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the main target, Rosetta also investigates two main belt asteroids, 2867 Steins (fly-by in September 2008) and 21 Lutetia (fly-by in July 2010).
Aims: In Spring 2008, we perform…

On the predictability of unstable satellite motion around elongated celestial bodies

Mysen, E.

Context: Close satellite orbits around small and elongated celestial bodies can experience massive aperiodic changes in shape. According to a number of published works, the changes are continuous functions of the orbit elements of the satellite's unperturbed trajectory.
Aims: Later research, however, has revealed that the onset of instability …