Mass and Local Topography Measurements of Itokawa by Hayabusa
- 2 June 2006
- journal article
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 312 (5778) , 1344-1347
Abstract
The ranging instrument aboard the Hayabusa spacecraft measured the surface topography of asteroid 25143 Itokawa and its mass. A typical rough area is similar in roughness to debris located on the interior wall of a large crater on asteroid 433 Eros, which suggests a surface structure on Itokawa similar to crater ejecta on Eros. The mass of Itokawa was estimated as (3.58 ± 0.18) × 10 10 kilograms, implying a bulk density of (1.95 ± 0.14) grams per cubic centimeter for a volume of (1.84 ± 0.09) × 10 7 cubic meters and a bulk porosity of ∼40%, which is similar to that of angular sands, when assuming an LL (low iron chondritic) meteorite composition. Combined with surface observations, these data indicate that Itokawa is the first subkilometer-sized small asteroid showing a rubble-pile body rather than a solid monolithic asteroid.Keywords
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