BBC: The European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft, launched in 2004 to study the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko when it places a lander there in 2014, caught the first-ever images of the asteroid Lutetia 450 million kilometers from Earth. On Saturday, from a distance of 3000 km, Rosetta revealed Lutetia to be lumpy and potato-like in appearance. About two hours of data transmission and pictures were beamed back to Earth. The observations will be valuable to asteroid science, and will be applicable to other asteroids besides Lutetia.
The finding that the Saturnian moon may host layers of icy slush instead of a global ocean could change how planetary scientists think about other icy moons as well.
Modeling the shapes of tree branches, neurons, and blood vessels is a thorny problem, but researchers have just discovered that much of the math has already been done.
January 29, 2026 12:52 PM
Get PT in your inbox
PT The Week in Physics
A collection of PT's content from the previous week delivered every Monday.
One email per week
PT New Issue Alert
Be notified about the new issue with links to highlights and the full TOC.
One email per month
PT Webinars & White Papers
The latest webinars, white papers and other informational resources.
