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Lutetia

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Encyclopedia of Astrobiology

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Definition

(21) Lutetia is a Main Belt asteroid discovered in 1852 by Hermann Goldschmidt from Paris, France, and named after the Latin name of the city. With an equivalent spherical diameter of about 100 km Lutetia is a comparatively large asteroid and could represent a surviving member of the population of original planetesimals that contributed to the formation of the inner planets. In 2010 Lutetia was visited by the Rosetta spacecraft on its tour to comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The close flyby enabled its bulk density to be determined to about 3.4 g cm−3, among the highest densities of asteroids measured so far. The images returned by the spacecraft revealed a body that experienced a complex collisional evolution, with multiple local resurfacing events and a thick regolith layer.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Planetary Research, Rutherfordstrasse 2, 12489, Berlin, Germany

    Stefano Mottola

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  1. Stefano Mottola
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Correspondence to Stefano Mottola .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Biología Molecular, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Ricardo Amils

  2. Labo. d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux (LAB), Observatoire Aquitain des Sciences de l'Univers (OASU), Floirac CX, France

    Muriel Gargaud

  3. Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), Inst. Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial, Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain

    José Cernicharo Quintanilla

  4. Geophysical Lab., Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, District of Columbia, USA

    Henderson James Cleaves

  5. Astronomy Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA

    William M. Irvine

  6. Dépt. Sc. de la Terre et de l’Atmosphère, Université du Québec, Montréal, Montreal, Québec, Canada

    Daniele Pinti

  7. Centre National d'Etudes Spatiale (CNES) DPI/E2U, Paris CX, France

    Michel Viso

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© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Mottola, S. (2014). Lutetia. In: Amils, R., et al. Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_5197-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_5197-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27833-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Physics and AstronomyReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics

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