Galileo Encounter with 951 Gaspra: First Pictures of an Asteroid
Abstract
Galileo images of Gaspra reveal it to be an irregularly shaped object (19 by 12 by 11 kilometers) that appears to have been created by a catastrophic collisional disruption of a precursor parent body. The cratering age of the surface is about 200 million years. Subtle albedo and color variations appear to correlate with morphological features: Brighter materials are associated with craters especially along the crests of ridges, have a stronger 1-micrometer absorption, and may represent freshly excavated mafic materials; darker materials exhibiting a significantly weaker 1-micrometer absorption appear concentrated in interridge areas. One explanation of these patterns is that Gaspra is covered with a thin regolith and that some of this material has migrated downslope in some areas.
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Science
Volume 257 | Issue 5077
18 September 1992
18 September 1992
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1991 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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Published in print: 18 September 1992
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- M. J. S. Belton et al.
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