Stereo Itokawa
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?
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.
