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On November 2, 2002, the Stardust spacecraft flew by Asteroid 5535 Annefrank.
This image of the asteroid was taken by the Stardust
spacecraft just prior to closest approach. The gray
scale figure on the right show a partially illuminated,
highly irregularly shaped asteroid, typical of all
small bodies imaged in our solar system. The STARDUST
camera resolution was sufficient to show that Annefrank
was about 8 km in length, twice the predicted size
from Earth-based observations. The surface reflects
about 10% to 20% of the sunlight, slightly less
than predicted. A few craters many hundreds of meters
are seen as well as surface brightness variations
due to changes in solar illumination as well as
albedo variation. These variations are exaggerated
in the false color image to the left. Both images
have been digitally enhanced and resampled.
Last updated November
26, 2003 |
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