| 摘 要： | On June 27, 1997, the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft flew within 1200km of the main belt asteroid 253 Mathilde. Previous observations of Mathilde had revealed it to be a C-type asteroid with an astonishingly-long rotation period of 17.4 days, an albedo of 3.8%, and a mean diameter of 60 km. Observations by NEAR reveal that Mathilde has a roughly triaxial shape of 66 × 48 × 46 km diameter and a mass of 1. 02 × 10 g, implying a mean density of only 1. 3g/cm3 . The surface of Mathilde was observed to be saturated with large impact craters, showing a range of visible topography in excess of 5 km. Multispectral observations did not reveal any substantial color differences across the surface, and coverage at multiple phase angles was used to derive a preliminary albedo of 3. 5 % to 5% .The low observed density, lack of color variations, and low albedo all suggest that Mathilde may be a primitive, carbon - rich object with an interior that contains substantial pore space.
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