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Credit: JAXA Credit: JAXA — used under educational fair use; see ISAS usage terms
Physical Properties
0 km
3.51e10 kg
1.9 g/cm³
12.132 h
0.29
Orbit
Sun
1.324 AU
0.2801
1.622°
1.52 yr
Sources & Further Reading
- NASA — official mission / factsheet page
- Wikipedia — extensive cross-referenced article
- JAXA Hayabusa Mission
Numerical values (radius, mass, orbital elements, temperatures) are drawn from NASA NSSDC Planetary Fact Sheets, JPL Horizons, and the JPL Small-Body Database. Last refreshed: 2026-04-18 18:19:26.
Itokawa is a 535 m × 294 m × 209 m S-type Near-Earth Asteroid that became the first asteroid from which samples were returned to Earth. JAXA’s Hayabusa spacecraft rendezvoused with Itokawa in 2005, collected ~1,500 grains of surface material, and delivered them to Woomera, Australia in June 2010. Laboratory analysis has since shown that Itokawa is a “rubble pile” — a gravitationally-bound collection of fragments with ~40% porosity — and that its minerals preserve evidence of water interaction.