SCIENCE IN THE NEWS DAILY
Rosetta Probe Makes Asteroid Pass
from the BBC News Online
The Rosetta space probe has made a close pass of asteroid Steins. The European Space Agency mission flew past the 5km-wide rock at a distance of about 800km, taking pictures and recording other scientific data.
The information was sent back to Earth for processing late on Friday and released to the public on Saturday. The asteroid pass is a bonus for Rosetta. Its prime goal is to catch and orbit Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko out near Jupiter in 2014.
Friday's pass occurred about 360 million km from Earth, in between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, in the asteroid belt.
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