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Science 6 October 1995:
Vol. 270. no. 5233, pp. 80 - 83
DOI: 10.1126/science.270.5233.80
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Reports

Radar Images of Asteroid 4179 Toutatis

Steven J. Ostro (1),  R. Scott Hudson,  Raymond F. Jurgens,  Keith D. Rosema,  Donald B. Campbell,  Donald K. Yeomans,  John F. Chandler,  Jon D. Giorgini,  Ron Winkler,  Randy Rose,  S. Denise Howard,  Martin A. Slade,  Phil Perillat,  Irwin I. Shapiro

Delay-Doppler images of the Earth-crossing asteroid 4179 Toutatis achieve resolutions as fine as 125 nanoseconds (19 meters in range) and 8.3 millihertz (0.15 millimeter per second in radial velocity) and place hundreds to thousands of pixels on the asteroid, which appears to be several kilometers long, topographically bifurcated, and heavily cratered. The image sequence reveals Toutatis to be in an extremely slow, non-principal axis rotation state.


S. J. Ostro, R. F. Jurgens, K. D. Rosema, D. K. Yeomans, J. D. Giorgini, R. Winkler, R. Rose, S. D. Howard, M. A. Slade, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109-8099, USA.
R. S. Hudson, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-2752, USA.
D. B. Campbell, National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, Space Sciences Building, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-6801, USA.
J. F. Chandler and I. I. Shapiro, Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
P. Perillat, Arecibo Observatory, Box 995, Arecibo, Puerto Rico 00613, USA.
(1) To whom correspondence should be addressed at mail stop 300-233. E-mail: ostro{at}echo.jpl.nasa.gov


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Shape and Non-Principal Axis Spin State of Asteroid 4179 Toutatis.
R. S. Hudson and S. J. Ostro (1995)
Science 270, 84-86
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