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The ginger-shaped asteroid 4179 Toutatis: New observations from a successful flyby of chang'e-2

  • Jiangchuan Huang*
  • , Jianghui Ji
  • , Peijian Ye
  • , Xiaolei Wang
  • , Jun Yan
  • , Linzhi Meng
  • , Su Wang
  • , Chunlai Li
  • , Yuan Li
  • , Dong Qiao
  • , Wei Zhao
  • , Yuhui Zhao
  • , Tingxin Zhang
  • , Peng Liu
  • , Yun Jiang
  • , Wei Rao
  • , Sheng Li
  • , Changning Huang
  • , Wing Huen Ip
  • , Shoucun Hu
  • Menghua Zhu, Liangliang Yu, Yongliao Zou, Xianglong Tang, Jianyang Li, Haibin Zhao, Hao Huang, Xiaojun Jiang, Jinming Bai
*Corresponding author for this work
  • China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation
  • Institute of Space System Engineering
  • CAS - Purple Mountain Observatory
  • CAS - Beijing Institute of Control Engineering
  • CAS - National Astronomical Observatories
  • Macau University of Science and Technology
  • Beijing Institute of Technology
  • Peking University
  • National Central University
  • Harbin Institute of Technology
  • Planetary Science Institute

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Article number3411
JournalScientific Reports
Volume3
DOIs
StatePublished - 12 Dec 2013

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