Rosetta images of Steins

Filed under asteroid 2867 Steins, asteroids, Rosetta and Philae, amateur image processing

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A sample of images obtained by Rosetta throughout its encounter with asteroid 2867 Steins on September 5, 2008.

ESA / OSIRIS Team / Emily Lakdawalla

The top row of images came from the narrow-angle camera between 17:00 and 18:28, after which the narrow-angle camera went into safe mode. The rest are from the wide-angle camera.

The third row appears bright because Rosetta passed nearly between the Sun and the asteroid, seeing the asteroid at near zero phase; the brightness is from the opposition effect. The center image on the fourth row was taken at closest approach at 18:39:13. The final image in the series was taken at 18:49.

Copyright holder: Emily Lakdawalla

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Contact us to request publication permission from the copyright holder. Original image data dated on or about September 5, 2008