TY - JOUR
T1 - The ginger-shaped asteroid 4179 Toutatis
T2 - New observations from a successful flyby of chang'e-2
AU - Huang, Jiangchuan
AU - Ji, Jianghui
AU - Ye, Peijian
AU - Wang, Xiaolei
AU - Yan, Jun
AU - Meng, Linzhi
AU - Wang, Su
AU - Li, Chunlai
AU - Li, Yuan
AU - Qiao, Dong
AU - Zhao, Wei
AU - Zhao, Yuhui
AU - Zhang, Tingxin
AU - Liu, Peng
AU - Jiang, Yun
AU - Rao, Wei
AU - Li, Sheng
AU - Huang, Changning
AU - Ip, Wing Huen
AU - Hu, Shoucun
AU - Zhu, Menghua
AU - Yu, Liangliang
AU - Zou, Yongliao
AU - Tang, Xianglong
AU - Li, Jianyang
AU - Zhao, Haibin
AU - Huang, Hao
AU - Jiang, Xiaojun
AU - Bai, Jinming
PY - 2013/12/12
Y1 - 2013/12/12
N2 - On 13 December 2012, Chang'e-2 conducted a successful flyby of the near-Earth asteroid 4179 Toutatis at a closest distance of 770 ± 120 meters from the asteroid's surface. The highest-resolution image, with a resolution of better than 3 meters, reveals new discoveries on the asteroid, e.g., a giant basin at the big end, a sharply perpendicular silhouette near the neck region, and direct evidence of boulders and regolith, which suggests that Toutatis may bear a rubble-pile structure. Toutatis' maximum physical length and width are (4.75 × 1.95â.km) ±10%, respectively, and the direction of the +z axis is estimated to be (250 ± 5, 63 ± 5) with respect to the J2000 ecliptic coordinate system. The bifurcated configuration is indicative of a contact binary origin for Toutatis, which is composed of two lobes (head and body). Chang'e-2 observations have significantly improved our understanding of the characteristics, formation, and evolution of asteroids in general.
AB - On 13 December 2012, Chang'e-2 conducted a successful flyby of the near-Earth asteroid 4179 Toutatis at a closest distance of 770 ± 120 meters from the asteroid's surface. The highest-resolution image, with a resolution of better than 3 meters, reveals new discoveries on the asteroid, e.g., a giant basin at the big end, a sharply perpendicular silhouette near the neck region, and direct evidence of boulders and regolith, which suggests that Toutatis may bear a rubble-pile structure. Toutatis' maximum physical length and width are (4.75 × 1.95â.km) ±10%, respectively, and the direction of the +z axis is estimated to be (250 ± 5, 63 ± 5) with respect to the J2000 ecliptic coordinate system. The bifurcated configuration is indicative of a contact binary origin for Toutatis, which is composed of two lobes (head and body). Chang'e-2 observations have significantly improved our understanding of the characteristics, formation, and evolution of asteroids in general.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84890721142
U2 - 10.1038/srep03411
DO - 10.1038/srep03411
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84890721142
SN - 2045-2322
VL - 3
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
M1 - 3411
ER -