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Science 2 June 2006:
Vol. 312. no. 5778, pp. 1347 - 1349
DOI: 10.1126/science.1126574
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Reports

Pole and Global Shape of 25143 Itokawa

Hirohide Demura,1 Shingo Kobayashi,1 Etsuko Nemoto,1 Naoya Matsumoto,1 Motohiro Furuya,1 Akira Yukishita,1 Noboru Muranaka,2 Hideo Morita,3 Ken Shirakawa,3 Makoto Maruya,4 Hiroshi Ohyama,4 Masashi Uo,4 Takashi Kubota,5 Tatsuaki Hashimoto,5 Jun'ichiro Kawaguchi,5 Akira Fujiwara,5 Jun Saito,5 Sho Sasaki,6 Hideaki Miyamoto,7,8 Naru Hirata1,9

The locations of the pole and rotation axis of asteroid 25143 Itokawa were derived from Asteroid Multiband Imaging Camera data on the Hayabusa spacecraft. The retrograde pole orientation had a right ascension of 90.53° and a declination of –66.30° (52000 equinox) or equivalently 128.5° and –89.66° in ecliptic coordinates with a 3.9° margin of error. The surface area is 0.393 square kilometers, the volume is 0.018378 cubic kilometers with a 5% margin of error, and the three axis lengths are 535 meters by 294 meters by 209 meters. The global Itokawa revealed a boomerang-shaped appearance composed of two distinct parts with partly faceted regions and a constricted ring structure.

1 Department of Computer Software, University of Aizu, Ikki-machi, Aizu-Wakamatsu City, Fukushima 965-8580, Japan.
2 CosmoLogic, 3-5-7, Kirigaoka, Midori-ku, Yokohama 226-0016 Japan.
3 NEC Aerospace Systems, 1-10 Nissincho, Fuchu, Tokyo, 183-8551 Japan.
4 NEC-TOSHIBA Space Systems, 1-10 Nissincho, Fuchu, Tokyo, 183-8551 Japan.
5 Intitute of Space and Astronautical Science/Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, 3-1-1, Yoshinodai, Sagamihara, 229-8510 Japan.
6 National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 2-12 Hoshigaoka, Mizusawa, Oshu 023-0861, Japan.
7 Department of Geosystem Engineering, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan.
8 Planetary Science Institute, 1700E Fort Lowell, Suite 106, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA.
9 Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kobe University, Kobe 657-8501, Japan.

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Adventures in near-Earth object exploration..
E. Asphaug (2006)
Science 312, 1328-1329
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The rubble-pile asteroid Itokawa as observed by Hayabusa..
A. Fujiwara, J. Kawaguchi, D. K. Yeomans, M. Abe, T. Mukai, T. Okada, J. Saito, H. Yano, M. Yoshikawa, D. J. Scheeres, et al. (2006)
Science 312, 1330-1334
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
X-ray fluorescence spectrometry of asteroid Itokawa by Hayabusa..
T. Okada, K. Shirai, Y. Yamamoto, T. Arai, K. Ogawa, K. Hosono, and M. Kato (2006)
Science 312, 1338-1341
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Mass and local topography measurements of Itokawa by Hayabusa..
S. Abe, T. Mukai, N. Hirata, O. S. Barnouin-Jha, A. F. Cheng, H. Demura, R. W. Gaskell, T. Hashimoto, K. Hiraoka, T. Honda, et al. (2006)
Science 312, 1344-1347
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


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