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May 30, 2021
The asteroid Itokawa was discovered in 1998 and named after the founder of the Japanese space program, Professor Hideo Itokawa. It has dimensions of 535 × 294 × 209 m, a highly elongated orbit that crosses the orbits of the Earth and Mars. In 2000, it was chosen as the object of study by the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa, becoming the first asteroid from which soil samples were delivered to Earth.
In 2005, the Hayabusa station landed on an asteroid and sampled soil. The sample capsule was returned to Earth and landed at Australia's Woomera Proving Grounds in 2010. The microparticles have been extensively studied in various scientific centers in Japan. Researched about 1500 grains of the substance about 50 microns in size. The study with an electron microscope made it possible to identify them as particles of olivines, pyroxenes and plagioclases - minerals widespread in the earth's crust, lunar soil and meteorites (ordinary chondrites). Troilite and tenite, minerals of meteorites, were found in smaller quantities.
Close-up observations of the asteroid and analysis of dust samples in laboratories on Earth have confirmed the assumption that the asteroid is part of a large object that was destroyed by the collision. And at the present time it is not a solid monolith, but a disorderly mixture (conglomerate) of rocks welded together by mutual gravity.
According to Japanese scientists, Itokawa loses surface material (which goes into outer space) at a rate of several tens of centimeters per million years, therefore, the lifespan of this asteroid is much less than the age of the solar system.
Source: Moscow Planetarium.
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Related links:
ROSCOSMOS Press Release: https://www.roscosmos.ru/31282/
Moscow Planetarium: https://www.roscosmos.ru/tag/moskovskiy-planetariy/
Asteroid: https://www.roscosmos.ru/tag/asteroid/
Images, Text, Credits: ROSCOSMOS/Moscow Planetarium/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.
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