21 Lutetia flyby completed, and high-resolution pictures of the asteroid are stunning
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Now that the flyby is finished one can find articles on the flyby and the asteroid with images, but at times of high excitement like these the best places to keep an eye on are forums such as those on space.com. The thread for the 21 Lutetia flyby is here, and that's where people are excitedly talking about the flyby and sharing images. Apparently the resolution the team hoped for before the encounter was 90 metres per pixel but resolution surpassed even this and reached 60 metres per pixel instead. The most stunning image is arguably this one, a crescent:
while one of the best images of as much of the surface as possible is this one:
while enlarged sections are good for taking a closer look at ridges and even some boulders: