Chang'e 2 departed from the Sun–Earth L2 point in April 2012 and made a flyby of Toutatis on 13 December 2012, with closest approach being 3.2 kilometers and a relative velocity of 10.73 km/s, when Toutatis was near its closest approach to Earth. It took several pictures of the asteroid, revealing it to be a dusty red/orange color. See also List of asteroid close approaches to Earth List of minor planets and comets visited by spacecraft References External links More Chang'E 2 Toutatis flyby images (Emily Lakdawalla : 2013/01/20) Chang'E 2 images of Toutatis - 13 December 2012 (Planetary Society) CCTV13 Special (all in Mandarin) China joined the interplanetary club by successfully imaging the asteroid Toutatis (Franck Marchis, 14 December 2012) Chinese space probe flies by asteroid Toutatis (Xinhua 2012-12-15) Surface Features of Asteroid Toutatis Revealed by Radar (YouTube: JPLnews) Goldstone radar images from the 2012 flyby Toutatis radar information Space.com: Video of Toutatis's close approach to Earth, 29 Sept, 2004 Interesting views of asteroid Astrobiology Magazine article (09/27/04) Simulating the orbit of Toutatis exposes its resonance with Jupiter (Gravity Simulator) Asteroid 4179 Toutatis' upcoming encounters with Earth and Chang'E 2 (Emily Lakdawalla 2012-12-06) Six-Centimeter Radar Observations of 4179 Toutatis Size comparison (Source) Chang'e 2 fly-by of Toutatis Presentation from Small Bodies Assessment Group (SBAG) 8 meeting Boulders on asteroid Toutatis as observed by Chang'e-2 (arXiv:1511.00766 : 3 Nov 2015) 004179 004179 Discoveries by Christian Pollas Named minor planets 004179 004179 20121213 004179 004179 20121212 19890104