Itokawa rotates under Hyabusa

Filed under best of, pretty pictures, animation, asteroids, asteroid 25143 Itokawa, Hayabusa (MUSES-C)

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This animation consists of 57 separate images captured by the Hayabusa spacecraft as the tiny asteroid Itokawa (535 by 294 by 209 meters in size) rotated underneath it. The images are actually from three separate rotations; they were sorted and lined up into this animation by Øyvind Guldbrandsen of the Norwegian Astronautical Society.

ISAS / JAXA / Øyvind Guldbrandsen

Click here for a full-resolution movie containing 169 frames (AVI format, 3.8 MB)