The Mass and Density of (21) Lutetia from Radio Tracking During the Rosetta Flyby

Details The Mass and Density of (21) Lutetia from Radio Tracking During the Rosetta Flyby The Mass and Density of (21) Lutetia from Radio Tracking During the Rosetta Flyby

Oct 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010dps....42.4307p&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #42, #43.07; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.1044

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

The Rosetta spacecraft flew by its second asteroid target (21) Lutetia on 10th July 2010. The flyby and recording of the radio carrier signals went very well. The frequency noise recorded at NASA's DSS-63 70-m antenna near Madrid was lower than expected. The asteroid perturbed the flyby trajectory and velocity of the spacecraft (closest approach was at 3160 km). The mass of the asteroid was determined from the Doppler shift of the radio signal carrier frequencies. A preliminary analysis of the flyby data and the housekeeping data show contributions from the rotation of the spacecraft body during flyby which still need to be corrected (The abstract is written one week after data reception at the institute). Pre-flyby simulations showed that a mass determination of the asteroid to an accuracy of 1% or better shall be possible even tough the flyby geometry was suboptimal and there was a tracking gap at closest approach. The bulk density will be derived from the determined mass and the volume. Volume estimates from the OSIRIS camera and from ground observations will be applied. Knowledge of the mass and bulk density is an important contributor to understand the asteroid's composition, internal structure and porosity and may probably also give clues for the definition of the asteroid's type. Lutetia is considered to be a major perturber of a number of smaller asteroids. The derived mass from the flyby will therefore be compared with those mass values derived from asteroid orbit perturbations.

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