Probe Chang'e 2 en route to asteroid

“嫦娥二號(hào)”飛往1千萬(wàn)公里外探測(cè)小行星

中國(guó)科學(xué)院院士、探月工程領(lǐng)導(dǎo)小組高級(jí)顧問(wèn)歐陽(yáng)自遠(yuǎn)10日透露，“嫦娥二號(hào)”衛(wèi)星已于今年4月15日受控飛向距離地球大約1000萬(wàn)公里的太陽(yáng)系空間，擇機(jī)開(kāi)展對(duì)4179號(hào)小行星的探測(cè)，為未來(lái)的小天體探測(cè)積累經(jīng)驗(yàn)。

2012-10-11 15:50 Ecns.cn Web Editor: Wang YuXia comment

Ouyang Ziyuan, an academician and senior advisor to the leading group of the Lunar Orbiting Exploration Project, adresses a report at a symposium held in Beijing on Wednesday to mark "World Space Week." [Chinanews.com]

Beijing (CNS) – China's unmanned lunar probe the Chang'e 2 departed from the Sun-Earth L2 point on April 15 and is now en route to the asteroid 4179 Toutatis, according to Ouyang Ziyuan, an academician and senior advisor to the leading group of the Lunar Orbiting Exploration Project.

Ouyang made the remarks at a symposium held in Beijing on Wednesday to mark "World Space Week."

At 4.6 kilometers long and about 700 million kilometers from Earth, the Toutatis is a potentially hazardous object to the planet, he said. If a collision happened, it would produce the equivalent of one trillion tons of explosives, or 50 million Hiroshima atomic bombs, he added.

Ouyang also said that China's solar system exploration until 2030 would use the exploration of Mars as an entry point, followed by the sun, asteroids, Venus and Jupiter.

The Chang'e 2 was launched on October 1, 2010, entered orbit around L2 on August 25, 2011, and began transmitting data from its new position in September 2011.

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