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Views of the Asteroid Toutatis, From Earth As Well As Close-Up

Posted by timothy on from the stone's-throw dept.

When Chinese probe Chang'e buzzed the asteroid Toutatis, it wasn't the only one watching. NASA's observatory in Goldstone, CA was taking radar images, which have now been assembled into a short (40-second) animation. The craft was recording the encounter, too, as reported by Sky & Telescope, which also gives a good summary of the history behind Chang'e's mission.

4 of 23 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The good 'ol days by JWSmythe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Resolution really helps things...

    It turned the face on Mars into a collection of rocks.

    And more importantly... Porn pictures on computers are no longer fuzzy 16 color images resembling the naked form.. :)

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    Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
  2. Re:The good 'ol days by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 4, Informative

    Is it just me, or do the newer batch of asteroids resemble big poops? Back in my day, they resembled little moons. And get off my lawn!

    The smaller the asteroid, the less moony and the more poopy it looks, and all the substantially moony have already been found.

    Planetology also predicts that any sufficiently large poop becomes spherical and develops internal structure. Keep that in mind and don't forget to clean your back-in-my-days outhouse regularly!

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    Ezekiel 23:20
  3. Space race, finally! by Janek+Kozicki · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Thumbs up for the chineese. As much as I don't like their politcs & government, I am really happy that they will hopefully start a new space race. All the humanity will benefit from that.

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    #
    #\ @ ? Colonize Mars
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  4. Re:Confusing? by Tablizer · · Score: 2

    That's what you get for asking Marketing Dept.

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    Table-ized A.I.