About Rosetta: In this section you will learn about Rosetta mission, its instruments, its scientific targets...Link
About VIRTIS: Some information about spectrometers, how they work, VIRTIS scientific targets...Link
About our Science Activities: Learn about last VIRTIS Science Meetings, scientific publications from our team and much more...Link
Latest News about Rosetta and VIRTIS:
Rosetta at Asteroid Lutetia
Asteroid Lutetia has been revealed as a battered world of many craters. ESA’s Rosetta mission has returned the first close-up images of the asteroid showing it is most probably a primitive survivor from the violent birth of the Solar System.
Rosetta will meet Lutetia on the 10th of July, flying to within 3200 km of the space rock. The close pass will allow around 2 hours of good imaging. The spacecraft will instantly begin beaming the data back to Earth and the first pictures will be released later. Starting at 18:00 watch the flyby live, on ESA TV.
This film, published by Lightcurve Films, provides with a glimpse behind the scenes of how such an instrument is conceived and built. This film is supported by INAF Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, ASI Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, and the Laboratoire d'Etudes Spatiales et d'Instrumentation en Astrophysique of the Observatoire de Paris, France.
Rosetta is an ESA mission, the first designed to both orbit and land on a comet. It will reach comet Churyumov - Gerasimenko in 2014. VIRTIS is an imaging spectrometer onboard of Rosetta built by IFSI/INAF, ASI, Galileo Avionica, DLR and Observatorie de Paris.
