Positions of Itokawa and Earth

This figure shows the positions of Itokawa and the Earth at the time of the observation (July 26th, 2007). 1 AU, or Astronomical Unit is the distance from Earth to the Sun, equal to 150 million km.

The planets and the asteroid Itokawa move along their orbits in the direction indicated. After three orbits for Earth and two orbits for Hayabusa, the asteroid explorer will arrive back at Earth in June 2010.