Astronomy Picture of the Day

Explanation: Get out your red/blue glasses and float next to asteroid Itokawa, a diminutive world of the solar system only half a kilometer across. Boulders strewn across its rough surface and the lack of craters indicate that this asteroid is a rubble pile, formed as smaller pieces collected and were kept together by gravity. The stereo view was constructed from images made by the Hayabusa spacecraft when it encountered the asteroid in 2005. After a long journey, the spacecraft re-entered the atmosphere on June 13 over Australia, successfully parachuting a capsule to Earth. Hayabusa's capsule could contain a small sample of material from rubble pile asteroid Itokawa.

Ponder: Can you guess the result to this simple experiment?

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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

Publications with keywords: asteroid
Publications with words: asteroid
See also:

• Lutetia: The Largest Asteroid Yet Visited
• Vesta Near Opposition
• P2010 A2: Unusual Asteroid Tail Implies Powerful Collision
• Hubble View: Jupiter Impact
• Almahata Sitta 15
• On the Trail of 2008 TC3
• Rosetta Spacecraft Passes Asteroid Steins

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