Multimedia Studio Effects/MULTIMEDIA.ISO/data/fli/space/gaspra.txt

Text File | 1995-05-12 | 1KB | 26 lines

     This animation consists of 11 images taken by the Galileo
spacecraft as it flew by the asteroid 951 Gaspra on October 29, 1991.
The animation shows Gaspra growing progressively larger in the field
of view of Galileo's solid-state imaging camera as the spacecraft
approached the asteroid.  Sunlight is coming from the right.
Gaspra is roughly 17 kilometers (10 miles) long, 10 kilometers
(6 miles) wide.

     The first frame of the animation (smallest image) was taken
5 3/4 hours before closest approach when the spacecraft was 164,000
kilometers (102,000 miles) from Gaspra, the last frame (largest image)
at a range of 16,000 kilometers (10,000 miles), 30 minutes before closest
approach.

     Gaspra spins once in roughly 7 hours, so these images
capture almost one full rotation of the asteroid.  Gaspra spins
counterclockwise; its north pole is to the upper left, and the
"nose" which points upward in the first image, is seen rotating
back into shadow, emerging at lower left, and rotating to upper
right.  Several craters are visible on the newly seen sides of
Gaspra, but none approaches the scale of the asteroid's radius.
Evidently, Gaspra lacks the large craters common on the surfaces
of many planetary satellites, consistent with Gaspra's
comparatively recent origin from the collisional breakup of a
larger body.