21 Lutetia - Definition and Overview

**21 Lutetia**
Discovery
Discoverer	Hermann M. S. Goldschmidt
Discovery Date	November 15, 1852
Alternate Designations
Category	Main belt
Orbital Elements Epoch January 30, 2005 (JD 2453400.5)
Eccentricity (e)	0.164
Semi-Major Axis (a)	364.277 G m (2.435 AU)
Perihelion (q)	304.600 Gm (2.036 AU)
Aphelion (Q)	423.955 Gm (2.834 AU)
Orbital Period (P)	1387.902 d (3.80 a)
Mean Orbital Speed	18.96 km/s
Inclination (i)	3.064°
Longitude of the Ascending Node (Ω)	80.917°
Argument of Perihelion (ω)	250.227°
Mean Anomaly (M)	75.393°
Physical Characteristics
Dimensions	95.8 km
Mass	9.2×10¹⁷ kg
Density	2.0 g/cm³
Surface Gravity	0.0268 m/s²
Escape Velocity	0.0506 km/s
Rotation Period	0.3405 d (8.172 h) ^{3 (http://www.psi.edu/pds/archive/lc.html)}
Spectral Class	M
Absolute Magnitude	7.35
Albedo	0.221 ^{4 (http://dorothy.as.arizona.edu/DSN/IRAS/index_iras.html)}
Mean Surface Temperature	~237 K

21 Lutetia ("loo TET ee a") is a large Main belt asteroid, about 100 kilometers in diameter.

It was discovered on November 15, 1852 by Hermann Mayer Salomon Goldschmidt at the observatory of Paris. The name Lutetia derives from the Latin name of Paris.

On July 10, 2010 the European Rosetta comet probe will pass the asteroid with a minimum distance of 3000 km on its way to 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

It will be a rather important flyby, since Lutetia is not only large but also the first metallic M-type asteroid to be visited by a spacecraft. There are serious questions about the metallicity of the M-type asteroids and the probe is expected to settle the issue.

There are two reported stellar occultations by Lutetia: from Malta (1997) and Australia (2003).

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The Minor Planets

Vulcanoids | Main belt | Groups and Families | Near-Earth objects | Jupiter Trojans

(For other objects and regions, see: Binary asteroids, Asteroid moons and the Solar system)

(For a complete listing, see: List of asteroids)

Example Usage of Lutetia
	FCTravel: 3 good reasons to visit Paris this winter: 1/free bikes 2/new spa at the Lutetia 3/ice skating ring at Versailles...
	2ndLifeFanatic: interview \| Ryker Beck \| .Ana Lutetia.: I discovered Second Life through a real life friend a little over three.. http://bit.ly/306bgh
	BizLifeCoachKD: interview \| Ryker Beck \| .Ana Lutetia.: I've also managed to brush up my programming skills (I develop PHP .. http://bit.ly/DhQW5

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21 Lutetia - Definition and Overview

Example Usage of Lutetia