... ESO, the European Southern Observatory . ... Solar System . ... New observations indicate that the asteroid Lutetia is a leftover fragment of the same original material that formed the Earth, Venus and Mercury. ... They found that the properties of the asteroid closely match those of a rare kind of meteorites found on Earth and thought to have formed in the inner parts of the Solar System. ... Artist's impression of the asteroid Lutetia making a close approach to a planet in the early Solar System ....