2015/08/01 by Jianghui Ji, Yun Jiang, Yuhui Zhao +2
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Asteroid #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrobiology #Astronomy #Geological and Geochemical Analysis #Geology #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research #Physics #Rubble #astro-ph.EP
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s1743921315008674
published as IAU Symposium 318, (2016)144-152 · 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted to IAU Symposium 318: Asteroids: New Observations, New Models
openalex publication_date 2015/08/01 · arxiv created 2015/11/06 · arxiv updated 2016/03/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract On 13 December 2012, Chang'e-2 completed a successful flyby of the near-Earth asteroid 4179 Toutatis at a closest distance of 770 meters from the asteroid's surface. The observations show that Toutatis has an irregular surface and its shape resembles a ginger-root of a smaller lobe (head) and a larger lobe (body). Such bilobate shape is indicative of a contact binary origin for Toutatis. In addition, the high-resolution images better than 3 meters provide a number of new discoveries about this asteroid, such as an 800-meter depression at the end of the large lobe, a sharply perpendicular silhouette near the neck region, boulders, indicating that Toutatis is probably a rubble-pile asteroid. Chang'e-2 observations have significantly revealed new insights into the geological features and the formation and evolution of this asteroid. In final, we brief the future Chinese asteroid mission concept.