25143 Itokawa is a small, peanut-shaped near-Earth asteroid of the Apollo group, discovered by the LINEAR survey in 1998 and later named for the Japanese rocket engineer Hideo Itokawa. It measures roughly 330 meters across its longest dimension and completes one rotation every 12.1 hours. Its low density and highly porous structure mark it as a rubble pile, a body held together loosely by numerous boulders of different sizes rather than forming one solid mass, and it is classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid because its orbit brings it close to Earth.
Facts
Discovery Year Sources
1. Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
Wikimedia Foundation
Wikidata: 25143 Itokawa
Wikidata Q149374, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source 25143 Itokawa (Wikipedia)
25143 Itokawa, Wikipedia - lead section, catalogue classification
25143 Itokawa (provisional designation 1998 SF36) is a sub-kilometer near-Earth object of the Apollo group and also a potentially hazardous asteroid.
In Group: Near-Earth Asteroids, Lead sentence
25143 Itokawa (provisional designation 1998 SF36) is a sub-kilometer near-Earth object of the Apollo group and also a potentially hazardous asteroid.
View the SourceReader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.