"Mini" craters on Itokawa observed in the close-up images of Itokawa

Abstract

Japanese Asteroid Explorer Hayabusa completed the surface mapping of the target S-type asteroid Itokawa during the rendez-vous phase between September and November in 2005. Furthermore, Hayabusa obtained several very high-resolution images during the descent to the surface for capturing surface sample materials. On these high resolution images , we have found several bright dots of a few centimeter size on boulders darkened by space-weathering. The bright dots are likely to be small craters produced by the hypervelocity impacts of meteoroids. We present the preliminary counting results of such small craters and discuss the implication on the meteoroids flux, timescale of space weathering and resurfacing on Itokawa.