• WHY WE EXPLORE
• PLANETARY NEWS
• SPACE TOPICS
  • Contests, Events, and Awards
  • Extrasolar Planets
  • How It Works
  • Near Earth Objects
  • Our Solar System
  • Search for Life
  • Space Missions
    • 2001 Mars Odyssey
    • Cassini-Huygens
    • Chandra X-Ray Observatory
    • Chandrayaan-1
    • Chang'e 1
    • Dawn
    • Deep Impact
    • Genesis
    • Hayabusa (MUSES-C)
      • Mission Objectives
      • Mission Facts
      • Science Instruments
      • Raw Image Data
    • Hubble Space Telescope
    • Kaguya (SELENE)
    • Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)
    • Mars Exploration Rovers
    • Mars Express
    • Mars Global Surveyor
    • Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
    • Mars Science Laboratory
    • MESSENGER
    • New Horizons
    • Past Missions
    • Phoenix
    • Private Missions
    • Rosetta
    • SMART-1
    • SOHO
    • Spitzer Space Telescope
    • Stardust
    • Ulysses
    • Venus Express
    • Voyager
• FOR KIDS

browse projects: Apophis Mission Design Competition Asteroid Impact Mapping System Catalog of Exoplanets Drive a Mars Rover Extrasolar Planets Transit Search International Lunar Decade International Year of Astronomy 2009 LIFE Experiment: Phobos Mars Climate Sounder Team Website Messages from Earth Observing Earth Pioneer Anomaly Planetary Microphones S.O.S: Save Our Science! SETI Optical Telescope SETI Radio Searches SETI@home Shoemaker NEO Grants Solar Sailing Space Advocacy Space Information Stardust@home Target Earth Visions of Mars

browse space topics: 2001 Mars Odyssey Asteroids and Comets Cassini-Huygens Chandra X-Ray Observatory Chandrayaan-1 Chang'e 1 Compare the Planets Dawn Deep Impact Earth Extrasolar Planets Genesis Hayabusa (MUSES-C) Hubble Space Telescope Jupiter Kaguya (SELENE) Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Mars Mars Exploration Rovers Mars Express Mars Global Surveyor Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Science Laboratory Mercury MESSENGER Moon Near Earth Objects Neptune New Horizons New Horizons Digital Time Capsule Past Missions Phoenix Planetary Analogs Planetary Exploration Timelines Planetfest 2008 Pluto and Charon Pluto Top Ten Postcards from Venus Private Missions Rosetta Saturn Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence SMART-1 SOHO Space Imaging Spitzer Space Telescope Stardust Trans-Neptunian Objects Ulysses Uranus Venus Venus Express Voyager Weekly Planetary Radio Trivia Contest

Space Topics: Hayabusa (MUSES-C)

Raw Data from the Hayabusa mission

Credit for these images belongs to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS).

The images on these pages come from the AMICA imaging system on the Hayabusa spacecraft. AMICA has a 1024-by-1024 pixel CCD chip. It operates in the visible, near-infrared and near-ultraviolet wavelength ranges and is equipped with a filter wheel including a wide-bandpass filter and seven narrowband filters. The central wavelngths of the narrowband filters are designed to be nearly equivalent to those of the Eight Color Asteroid Survey (ECAS) system as follows:

Four position-angle glass polarizers were mounted on an edge of the chip, which appears to darken one edge of some images. Images were compressed on board using either a lossless or lossy compression algorithm. In addition, some images were reduced in resolution by binning 2x2, 4x4, or 8x8 before being returned to Earth.

The data was released to the public via the Hayabusa Project Science Data Archive on April 23, 2007. The images were made available in FITS format. They were all downloaded on April 30 and May 1, 2007 and converted to 16-bit PNG format using Björn Jónsson's IMG2PNG utility. Thumbnails on these pages are shown at 1/8 the full resolution of the original image, and have been automatically contrast-stretched. Many of the full-size 16-bit images appear to be all black because most of the data has low pixel values; adjusting the contrast of the images will reveal the images' details. An index to all the files in Excel format can be downloaded here.

	Cruise phase May 19, 2003 - May 15, 2004
	Earth swingby May 16-19, 2004 Hayabusa acquired images of both Earth and the Moon.
	Cruise phase May 20, 2004 - September 11, 2005 Hayabusa first imaged Itokawa on September 5, 2004, but did not resolve the tiny asteroid until almost a year later. Images captured toward the end of cruise revealed the otter-like shape of the asteroid.
	Gate position September 12-29, 2005 Hayabusa performed initial surveys from this position about 20 kilometers above Itokawa, including multispectral studies and lengthy movies of the asteroid's rotation.
	Home position September 30 - October 7, 2005 Hayabusa descended for a closer look, around 7 kilometers above the surface, again studying the asteroid's shape, rotation, and surface coloration.
	Home position October 8-28, 2005 Hayabusa toured around the asteroid to various altitudes, different solar phase angles, and viewed both poles.
	Descent and touchdown October 30 - November 19, 2005 Hayabusa descended twice, touching down on November 19 and 25, 2005, capturing its highest resolution images during the careful descents.