Rosetta, an European space probe, managed to fly by an asteroid without any worrying incidents. Unfortunately, its main high resolution camera turned itself off and the only photos from the close encounter were taken with a secondary wide angle camera from a distance of about 500 miles. Even though the scentists counted on the high quality images, the results were still satisfactory.

"The software switched off automatically," said Gerhard Schwehm, the mission manager and head of solar systems science operations at ESA. They are not sure at this point what exactly happened and are currently looking into the issue. "The camera has some software limits and we'll analyze why this happened later." This was not considered a major issue fot the mission’s success and the operation is expected to continue as planned.

The picture presentation and also the discussions about the Asteroid 2867, as it is called, are scheduled for later today.

The European Space Agency launched the Rosetta craft in March 2004 from the French Guyana and its mission is to gather clues about the creation of the solar system. It is now at about 250 million miles away from Earth and its main objective will be reached in 2014 once it encounters the 4 km wide 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet. The craft will detach a small lander called Philae, which will land on the comet’s surface in order to study its chemistry and run several other tests.

The European Agency involves the work of 17 countires such as Germany and France and it also holds a partnership with NASA for various projects.