Near-Earth asteroid ITOKAWA

Itokawa

Near-Earth asteroid

A small near-Earth rubble pile whose dust was returned to Earth by Hayabusa.

View in the 3D observatory

Illustrative surface and shape · Image credits

Equivalent diameter: 0.33 km
Orbital semimajor axis: 1.324 AU
Model orbital period: 1.524 yr

01 / Overview

Meet Itokawa

Itokawa has an irregular, two-lobed outline. Spacecraft observations and returned samples revealed links between rubble piles and ordinary chondrite meteorites.

Shape and composition

Itokawa has both boulder fields and relatively smooth regions, reflecting debris movement under weak gravity.

Discovery and exploration

Japan’s Hayabusa returned samples from Itokawa in 2010, completing the first asteroid sample return.

02 / Key data

Core parameters

Equivalent diameter: 0.33 km
Orbital semimajor axis: 1.324 AU
Model orbital period: 1.524 yr
Rotation period: 12.132 hours
Orbital inclination: 1.621 °
Orbital eccentricity: 0.28018

Data and calculation notes

Asteroid positions use epoch-based JPL orbital snapshots and a two-body approximation. Planetary perturbations and thermal radiation effects are omitted; this is not for close-approach or impact prediction. Except for Ceres's observed near-spherical fallback, scene shapes come from mission or PDS models. True sizes use equivalent radii; asteroids do not participate in eclipse calculations.

03 / Further reading

A closer look

Scale and orbit4

Itokawa has an equivalent diameter of about 0.33 km: the diameter of a sphere with the same volume.
A year on Itokawa lasts about 1.52 Earth years.
Using this site's orbital elements, Itokawa is about 0.953 AU from the Sun at perihelion.
Using this site's orbital elements, Itokawa is about 1.695 AU from the Sun at aphelion.

Sources

Understanding the orbital model2

An orbital snapshot describes motion near its epoch; planetary gravity changes real orbits over time.
Near-Earth asteroid is an orbital classification; it does not mean an impact on Earth is imminent.

Sources

04 / Sources

Trusted sources

NASA Science — Itokawa JPL — Orbital data

Image credits

Published global maps or surface-albedo data are applied only to the matching body. Pallas uses Carry et al.'s published K-band relative-albedo map, which covers about 80% of the surface; unobserved pixels are filled with the mean only to keep the matching model continuous. Psyche uses the per-facet relative-albedo map bundled with DAMIT model 1806. Juno has no downloadable global albedo map, so it keeps its own shape, JPL geometric albedo, and spectral material without borrowing another body's texture.

Surface texture：Hayabusa / Phil Stooke / NASA PDS · License · Rendered by ORBIT