Chang'e 2, a Chinese spacecraft that was orbiting the Moon 18 months ago, has wowed space-watchers around the world by returning detailed images of asteroid 4179 Toutatis taken during a close-in, high-speed flyby.
Confucius actually never said "A picture is worth a thousand words," but that well-known proverb's Chinese attribution (even if unfounded) is ringing true today. That's because we're getting our first looks at asteroid 4179 Toutatis as seen at close range by the Chang'e 2 spacecraft, which flew past the little asteroid two days ago. And those few images say a lot about what this potentially hazardous near-Earth object is all about.
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