A&A 425, L25-L28 (2004)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:200400054

Letter

Visible spectral properties of asteroid 21 Lutetia, target of Rosetta Mission

M. Lazzarin, S. Marchi, S. Magrin and C. Barbieri

Dipartimento di Astronomia, Università di Padova, Vicolo dell'Osservatorio 2, 35122 Padova, Italy
    e-mail: [lazzarin;marchi;s.magrin;barbieri]@pd.astro.it

(Received 17 June 2004 / Accepted 10 August 2004)

Abstract
Rosetta spacecraft was successfully launched on March 2nd 2004 after its launch postponement in January 2003. Owing to this delay all the original targets, comet and asteroids, have been changed. In particular, on its 10 years journey to the new comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the spacecraft will pass close to the asteroid 21 Lutetia. In this paper we present three visible spectra of 21 Lutetia covering its rotational period. We have not found big surface composition variations and the overall behavior resembles that of a C-type asteroid. However, we discovered two main features which are present on the three spectra at around 0.43 and 0.51  m probably due to aqueous alteration and porphyrins respectively.

Key words: visible spectroscopy -- Rosetta target

© ESO 2004

The OpenURL standard is a protocol for transmission of metadata describing the resource that you wish to access. An OpenURL link contains article metadata and directs it to the OpenURL server of your choice. The OpenURL server can provide access to the resource and also offer complementary services (specific search engine, export of references...). The OpenURL link can be generated by different means.

• If your librarian has set up your subscription with an OpenURL resolver, OpenURL links appear automatically on the abstract pages.
• You can define your own OpenURL resolver with your EDPS Account. In this case your choice will be given priority over that of your library.
• You can use an add-on for your browser (Firefox or I.E.) to display OpenURL links on a page (see http://www.openly.com/openurlref/). You should disable this module if you wish to use the OpenURL server that you or your library have defined.