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Lutetia

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Credit: ESA 2010 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA Credit: ESA/Rosetta MPS — used under educational fair use
ASTEROID

Lutetia

A large main-belt asteroid flown past by Rosetta in 2010 — possibly a primitive protoplanet survivor.

Orbits Sun

Physical Properties

49 km
8.1655 h
0.191

Orbit

Sun
2.435 AU
0.163
3.064°
3.8 yr

Sources & Further Reading

Numerical values (radius, mass, orbital elements, temperatures) are drawn from NASA NSSDC Planetary Fact Sheets, JPL Horizons, and the JPL Small-Body Database. Last refreshed: 2026-04-18 18:19:27.

21 Lutetia is a large main-belt asteroid flown past by ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft on 10 July 2010. Rosetta imagery revealed a battered body 121 × 101 × 75 km with mysteriously high density, suggesting it may be a primordial protoplanet that escaped disruption.