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PIA00515: Computer Generated View of Earth as seen from the Asteroid Toutatis
This computer generated image depicts a view of Earth as seen from the surface of the asteroid Toutatis on Nov 29th 1996. A 2.5 degree field-of-view synthetic computer camera was used for this simulation.
 Target Name:  Toutatis
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Product Size:  4096 x 3072 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  JPL 
 Producer ID:  P48083  
 Addition Date:  1996-11-27 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA00515.tif (4.795 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA00515.jpg (307.3 kB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

This computer generated image depicts a view of Earth as seen from the surface of the asteroid Toutatis on Nov 29th 1996. A 2.5 degree field-of-view synthetic computer camera was used for this simulation. Toutatis is visible on this date as a twelfth magnitude object in the night sky in the constellation of Virgo and could be viewed with a medium sized telescope. Toutatis currently approaches Earth once every four years and, on Nov. 29th, 1996 will be 5.2 million kilometers away (approx. 3.3 million miles).

In approximately 8 years, on Sept. 29th, 2004, it will be less than 1.6 million kilometers from Earth. This is only 4 times the distance to the moon, and is the closest approach predicted for any known asteroid or comet during the next 60 years.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL

Image Addition Date:
1996-11-27