Asteroid
A small, peanut-shaped near-Earth asteroid, the first to have samples returned to Earth.
| Type | Asteroid |
|---|---|
| Distance from the Sun | 1.32 AU |
| Diameter | 0 km |
| Mass | 3.51 × 10¹⁰ kg |
| Temperature | -73°C |
| Orbital period | 556 days |
| Rotation period | 12.13 hours |
| Apparent magnitude | 19 |
| Redshift | 0 |
| Discovered | 1998 |
Asteroids are rocky leftovers from the solar system's formation, most of them confined to the belt between Mars and Jupiter where Jupiter's gravity kept them from ever assembling into a planet.
At 0 km across, Itokawa is less than a thousandth of the diameter of Earth.
Its mass is less than a thousandth of the mass of Earth.
It keeps an average distance of 1.32 AU from the Sun, so sunlight takes 11 minutes to reach it.
A single orbit takes 1.5 years.
An average temperature of 200 K works out at -73 degrees Celsius, colder than the 15 degrees Earth averages.
It has been on record since 1998.
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