Comet-Chasing Spacecraft Encounters Rare Asteroid

Riding with Robots writes "Yesterday the robotic spacecraft Rosetta, on its way to a distant encounter with Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, flew by the asteroid 'Steins,' which is roughly 4.6 kilometers wide. Steins is one of the relatively rare E-type asteroids. The mission team live-blogged throughout the day, and a press conference with the first pictures will be available soon." Rosetta's flyby took it to within 800 kilometers of Steins while both objects were roughly 360 million kilometers from Earth. According to Rosetta's fact sheet (PDF), the craft will next swing by Earth in 2009 and take a look at another asteroid in 2010 on its way to the rendezvous with the comet in 2014.

Comments

E-type?

[cheebie]

From the linked Wikipedia entry:

# X-group

        * M-type (16 Psyche) metallic objects, the third most populous group.
        * E-type (44 Nysa, 55 Pandora) differ from M-type mostly by high albedo
        * P-type (259 Aletheia, 190 Ismene; CP: 324 Bamberga) differ from M-type mostly by low albedo

So, the probe has encountered a shiny metal asteroid. Has anyone informed Bender?

Re:E-type?

[knutkracker]

So, the probe has encountered a shiny metal asteroid. Has anyone informed Bender?

Fron Wikipedia:

M-type asteroids are asteroids of unknown composition

E-type (44 Nysa, 55 Pandora) differ from M-type mostly by high albedo (0.3 or better)

"Bite my moderatley-reflective mystery-material ass-teroid"?

Re:E-type?

[jav1231]

" * E-type (44 Nysa, 55 Pandora) differ from M-type mostly by high albedo"

I think the word is "libido" and clearly if this type of asteroid were characterized by "high" libido it wouldn't be so rare!

E-Type?!

[TigerPlish]

So it's prone to rust, hates humidity and corners like a cat on velcro?

brrrm!

That's no asteroid...

[Anonymous Coward]

Or maybe it is...

Re:Relatively rare?

[totally bogus dude]

Yo momma's a numerical minority, but a relative supermajority by volume.