High-res images of asteroid Itokawa!!

The Singing Badger · Post #1by **The Singing Badger** » 01.11.2005, 22:45

Behold the strangeness!!!

http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/j/snews/2005/11 ... busa.shtml

Cham · Post #2by **Cham** » 02.11.2005, 00:17

I agree, those pictures are awesome !

This asteroid is extremelly weird. We need a model of that one !

Cham · Post #3by **Cham** » 02.11.2005, 00:48

Look at these :

Malenfant · Post #4by **Malenfant** » 02.11.2005, 01:06

Those smooth patches are very weird. I think the latest idea is that dust has settled in those areas due to impacts...

The Singing Badger · Post #5by **The Singing Badger** » 02.11.2005, 01:25

I don't read Japanese, but I'm guessing 'Point A' and 'Point B' are the proposed landing sites, right?

Dollan · Post #6by **Dollan** » 02.11.2005, 02:06

This sucker looks like a piece of half-chewed candy that's fallen on the floor and picked up a lot of dust bunnies!

Are we looking at a pretty young (relatively speaking) surface here?

...John...

buggs_moran · Post #7by **buggs_moran** » 02.11.2005, 02:36

I love the picture where the huge boulder on the right looks as if it's just stuck there, but could fall off at any moment. Really amazing shots. Looks like it's just a conglomerate rock. I wonder if the parts have different colors...

buggs_moran · Post #8by **buggs_moran** » 02.11.2005, 02:37

The Singing Badger wrote:I don't read Japanese, but I'm guessing 'Point A' and 'Point B' are the proposed landing sites, right?

Try this
http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/snews/index.shtml

Michael Kilderry · Post #9by **Michael Kilderry** » 02.11.2005, 07:07

The asteroid looks like someones pulled a piece from Mars' rock littered surface and then wrapped it all around into an oblong object.

Don. Edwards · Post #10by **Don. Edwards** » 02.11.2005, 09:33

Well this is our first view of a junk pile asteroid. If this thing was hit by a big enough impacter it would probably jsut fall apart.

Don.