Key facts
- Category
- Asteroids
- Object class
- S-type near-Earth asteroid
- Composition
- Silicate (stony) rock
- Scale fact
- 4.75 kmmaximum extent
- Mass
- ~19 billion metric tons
4179 Toutatis
4.75 kmmaximum extent
Explore 4179 Toutatis to scaleDetails
Toutatis is an elongated, S-type near-Earth asteroid on an Apollo orbit with a complex tumbling rotation. China’s Chang’e 2 probe flew past it in 2012, adding close images to the detailed shape and spin information already obtained by radar.
Toutatis does not rotate around one fixed axis: it turns around its long axis in about 5.4 days while that axis precesses on a roughly 7.4-day cycle. Radar observations resolved its two-lobed outline and tracked this motion; Chang’e 2 supplied an optical close view during its 13 December 2012 flyby. Its orbit is well measured, and NASA’s analysis rules out an Earth impact for at least the next four centuries.
Links
- Preset views
- Wikipedia
- 4179 Toutatis on Wikipedia
Size neighbors
Objects near 4179 Toutatis on the scale
On the logarithmic size axis, 4179 Toutatis falls between Methone and 81P/Wild (Wild 2). The band uses nearby S-type near-Earth asteroid records.
Shared physical scale
26.0km
Sources
References for 4179 Toutatis
Measurements and descriptive context are compiled by the Scale of Space team from the references below. If you find an error, please let us know.
- 4179 Toutatis — Wikipedia
- Visual reference: Wikimedia Commons (Chang'e 2 2012 / Jiang et al. / Chang’e 2 / CNSA, CC BY 4.0)
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About
Scale of Space is a scroll-based journey through the universe, placing objects on a single logarithmic scale so you can compare size across an unbroken range.
Guides explain selected parts of that range, while focused views filter the objects by subject.