New views of asteroids

Science

Volumn 278, Issue 5346, 1997, Pages 2070-2071

  Asphaug, Erik ^a  

^a NASA AMES RESEARCH CENTER   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ASTRONOMY; MICROGRAVITY; PRIORITY JOURNAL; REVIEW; SPACE FLIGHT; TELECOMMUNICATION;

EID: 0031456909     PISSN: 00368075     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1126/science.278.5346.2070     Document Type: Review

References (11)

1. -3, escape velocity (in meters per second) is about equal to asteroidal radius (in kilometers). If you can jump half a meter on Earth, you could leap off of an asteroid 5 km in diameter.
2. Rotational periods vary tremendously. Speedy Castalia revolves every 4 hours, Mathilde every 17 days. Non-principal-axis rotator Toutatis (see figure) has nothing that can be called a "day," forever showing different horizons. For further insights, see Scott Hudson's Web page, http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/∼hudson/ asteroids.html.
3. This "human ICBM" mode of transportation is ill-advised; D. J. Scheeres et al., Icarus 121, 67 (1996) demonstrated the complexity of trajectories proximal to Castalía.
4. For a video view of the Mathilde encounter, see http://hurlbut.jhuapl.edu/NEAR/Mathilde/ images.html#ani.
5. J. Veverka et al., Science 278, 2109 (1997); D. K. Yeomans et al., ibid., p. 2106.
6. J. Veverka et al., Science 278, 2109 (1997); D. K. Yeomans et al., ibid., p. 2106.
7. S. J, Ostro et al., Astron. J. 102, 1490 (1991). Visit the asteroid radar research home page at http:// echo.jpl.nasa.gov.
8. R. S. Hudson and S. J. Ostro, Science 263, 940 (1994).
9. _, ibid. 270, 84 (1995).
10. The upgraded Arecibo antenna will also be used to image the "back side" of Mathilde, which was not seen during the NEAR flyby.
11. P. C. Thomas et al., Science 277, 1492 (1997).