[meteorite-list] Hayabusa Update - November 1, 2005

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Nov 1 12:30:06 2005
Message-ID: <200511011728.jA1HSgd27412_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.isas.ac.jp/e/snews/2005/1101.shtml

All around a small world!
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
November 1, 2005

Hayabusa has finished an exciting excursion around Itokawa. The figure
below indicates the spacecraft position during the latter half of
October. The definition of HP coordinates was described in previous
articles <http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/snews/2005/0929.shtml>.

[graphics]

After reaching the sub-solar point
<http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/snews/2005/1027_itokawa.shtml>,Hayabusa
started to travel out of the ecliptic plane to observe the polar
regionsof Itokawa.The image below shows the southern hemisphere of Itokawa.

[Image]

Due to the low altitude and solar elevation angles, we can see detailed
topography in the high-latitude regions. There are even some boulders on
Muses-Sea <http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/snews/2005/0922_itokawa.shtml>,
which looked very smooth in previous observations. Imagine one of these
boulders flying in space. If it came to the Earth's vicinity, we would
observe it as a tiny independent near-Earth asteroid
<http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/Closest.html>. It has long been
conjectured that meteorites are fragments of asteroids delivered to the
Earth's surface, but it remains to be proven. The samples of Itokawa
collected and returned by Hayabusa could provide the first direct
evidence of the link between asteroids and meteorites.
Received on Tue 01 Nov 2005 12:28:42 PM PST