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25143 Itokawa (pronounced /ˌiːtoʊˈkɑːwə/, Japanese イトカワ, from 糸川) is an Apollo and Mars-crosser asteroid. It was the first asteroid to be the target of a sample return mission, the Japanese space probe Hayabusa.
[edit] HistoryThe asteroid was discovered in 1998 by the LINEAR project, and given the provisional designation 1998 SF36. In 2000, it was selected as the target of Japan's Hayabusa mission. Soon thereafter, it was officially named after Hideo Itokawa, a Japanese rocket scientist. [edit] DescriptionItokawa is an S-type asteroid. Radar imaging by Goldstone revealed an elongated irregular shape.[4] The Hayabusa mission confirmed these findings and also suggested that Itokawa may be a contact binary formed by two or more smaller asteroids that have gravitated toward each other and stuck together. The Hayabusa images show a surprising lack of impact craters, but a very rough surface studded with boulders. These particular boulders were referred by the mission team as being in a 'rubble'.[5] This would mean that Itokawa is not a monolith but rather a ‘rubble pile’ formed from fragments that have cohered over time. [edit] Hayabusa missionThe Japanese probe Hayabusa arrived in the vicinity of Itokawa on September 12, 2005 and initially "parked" in an asteroid-sun line at 20 km, and later 7 km, from the asteroid. Hayabusa landed November 20 for thirty minutes, but failed to operate a device designed to collect soil samples. On November 25, a second landing and the sampling sequence was attempted. Hayabusa has since left the asteroid, and the sample capsule is planned to land at Woomera, South Australia in 2010; however, it is unclear if any samples were collected. [edit] Named surface featuresNames of major features were proposed by Hayabusa scientists and accepted by the Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature of the International Astronomical Union.
Also, the Hayabusa science team is using working names for smaller surface features.[6][7] [edit] References
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