Travelling in deep space, Chang'e-2 made the flyby on Dec. 13 at 16:30:09 Beijing Time (08:30"09 GMT), the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) announced on Saturday.
The flyby was the first time an unmanned spacecraft launched from Earth has taken such a close viewing of the asteroid, named after a Celtic god.
It also made China the fourth country after the United States, the European Union and Japan to be able to examine an asteroid by spacecraft.
Chang'e-2 came as close as 3.2 km from Toutatis and took pictures of the asteroid at a relative velocity of 10.73 km per second, the SASTIND said in a statement.
Sources with the administration told Xinhua that Chang'e-2 is continuing its deep space travel and will reach a distance of more than 10 million km away from Earth in January next year.
Note EU-Digest: The Toutatis asteroid presently not pose a threat to Earth says NASA, and researchers say that there is no chance it will hit our planet over the next four centuries or so.
However, the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts lists the Toutatis asteroid as a potential threat. They listed it as a potential threat, meaning that it could pose a risk to Earth at some point in the future.
Read more: Chinese space probe flies by asteroid Toutatis- China.org.cn
Note EU-Digest: The Toutatis asteroid presently not pose a threat to Earth says NASA, and researchers say that there is no chance it will hit our planet over the next four centuries or so.
However, the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts lists the Toutatis asteroid as a potential threat. They listed it as a potential threat, meaning that it could pose a risk to Earth at some point in the future.
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