| Risultati della ricerca nelle immagini - "Toutatis" |
Toutatis.jpgEarth from the asteroid "Toutatis"86 visiteOn September 29, 2004, the Earth came within 1 million miles of the asteroid Toutatis - the closest predicted approach of our fair planet to a sizable asteroid or comet in this century. Coming within 1 million miles (or about 4 times the Earth-Moon distance), Earth would appear to be nearly the size of the full moon in the asteroid's sky, as suggested in this illustration. In Earth's sky, Toutatis appeared only as a faint object rapidly moving against a background of stars. Also known as Earth-Crossing Asteroid (ECA) 4179, Toutatis is in an eccentric 4 year orbit which moves it from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter to just inside Earth's orbit. When the Earth passed near it in 1992 Toutatis was imaged by radar and seen to be 2 irregularly shaped lumps, perhaps joined by a narrow neck. This bizarre object is about 3 Km wide, 5,5 Km long and is tumbling through space. Studies of Toutatis and other ECA's help reveal connections between the Solar System's meteorites main-belt asteroids and comets.
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