The Planetary Society Blog
By Emily Lakdawalla
The Face on Steins?
Sep. 10, 2008 | 15:14 PDT | 22:14 UTC
Here's one last image from Rosetta that I couldn't resist posting. When I was closely examining the images that Rosetta took of Šteins as it departed, this is what I saw: The Face on Šteins?
I couldn't help but see a sad face staring out at me from the departing shots of Šteins by Rosetta. It's no wonder he's sad -- he has a huge hole in the top of his head! Credit: ESA ©2007 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS / UPD / LAM / IAA / RSSD / INTA / UPM / DASP / IDA / crude sketch by Emily Lakdawalla |
Here's the departure animation again, so you can watch him fly sadly away -- most likely never again to receive another visitor from Earth.OSIRIS WAC view of Steins flyby
The wide-angle camera on Rosetta snapped photos of Steins throughout its 800-kilometer flyby on September 5, 2008. The animation begins three minutes before closest approach, from a distance of about 2,000 kilometers, and ends four minutes after closest approach. At the start of the animation, the Sun illuminated the asteroid from directly behind the spacecraft, so no shadows are visible on its surface, which shines brilliantly. As the flyby continued, the spacecraft viewed it from increasingly higher phase angles, making the asteroid appear darker and bringing more surface features into view through topographic shading. The asteroid is about 5.9 kilometers across and 4.0 kilometers from top to bottom. Credit: ESA ©2007 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS / UPD / LAM / IAA / RSSD / INTA / UPM / DASP / IDA |
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