The rock - some 120km (75 miles) in its longest dimension - could possibly be the most significant asteroid however visited with a satellite.
Pictures showed Lutetia getting very irregular in shape, its surface area marked by numerous broad effect craters as well as some intriguing grooves.
rosetta stone language come upon using the asteroid occurred some 454 million km from Earth, previous the orbit of Mars.
"It's a brand name new world found out by Rosetta Stone American English also it will sustain researchers busy for years," mentioned Holger Sierks, the principal investigator for the Osiris electronic camera method which obtained the pictures on this page.
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ASTEROID 21 LUTETIA
It was found out in 1852 by Hermann Goldschmidt in Paris
Lutetia was the name of the pre-Roman village for the website of Paris
The designation "21" refers for that purchase of asteroid discoveries
Read Esa's rosetta stone portuguese blog
Dawn - Nasa's asteroid probe
"The pictures are majestic; they hold my air away," Professor David Southwood, the European space Agency's director of science, informed BBC News.
"It is definitely an historic day, Europe the instant once more proving it may perform important actions in photo voltaic method exploration. anything worked like clockwork. It really was photo perfect," he said.
Scientists wish the information can help them create Lutetia's a fact nature. Earth-based telescopes have experienced superb problems in classifying the rock.
Some observations experienced recommended it experienced been a amazingly primitive body, tiny transformed thinking about that its development (a so-called C-type asteroid).
Other measurements, though, experienced spied what arrived out getting metals in its surface, indicating the rock might have undergone a higher level of evolution (M-type asteroid).
Lutetia could even be the fragmented goes on to be of the a great offer bigger asteroid smashed apart in an amazingly superb collision.
Nearly all for the Rosetta mission's instruments have been switched on for just about any period of your time of numerous several hours near to closest method (1544 GMT; 1644 BST; 1744 CEST on Saturday).
Multi-wavelength cameras and spectrometers, magnetic area and plasma experiments, dirt instruments, a airwaves science experiment - all have been tasked with gathering as a great offer information as feasible since the spacecraft whizzed by on the relative pace of 15km/s (9 miles/s) collectively with a minimum amount range of 3,162km (1,964 miles).
"It has an fascinating surface area and within your glance of it, I would say it is a great offer more of the C-type asteroid - but we can't really say something yet," mentioned Dr Rita Schulz, the Rosetta job scientist.
"We should wait around for that infrared data. This should be the important I think in knowing this asteroid," she informed BBC News.
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