Related papers: Ryugu's observed volatile loss did not arise from …
Because of relatively high surface temperatures and quick evolution of orbital parameters of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) of primitive types, the possibility of retention of icy materials (predominately H2O ice) remains in question. Yet,…
The Hayabusa2 mission impact experiment on asteroid Ryugu created an unexpectedly large crater. The associated regime of low-gravity, low-strength cratering remained largely unexplored so far, because these impact conditions cannot be…
Understanding the geological modification processes on asteroids can provide information concerning their surface history. Images of small asteroids from spacecraft show a depletion in terms of smaller craters. Seismic shaking was…
Asteroid (162173) Ryugu is the target object of Hayabusa2, an asteroid exploration and sample return mission led by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Ground-based observations indicate that Ryugu is a C-type near-Earth asteroid…
Remote sensing observations by Hayabusa2 and laboratory measurements have revealed that the phyllosilicates on asteroid (162173) Ryugu are dehydrated/dehydroxylated due to space weathering. Reactive molecular dynamics simulations were…
The analysis of biorelevant molecules in returned mission samples such as from the carbonaceous asteroid (162173) Ryugu is key to unravelling the role of extraterrestrial organics in the evolution of life. Coordinated analyses using…
Asteroid 162173 Ryugu is a rubble-pile asteroid, whose top-shape is compatible with models of deformation by spin up. Rims of major craters on Ryugu have an east-west asymmetric profile; their western crater rims are sharp and tall, while…
Asteroid 162173 Ryugu has numerous craters. The initial measurement of impact craters on Ryugu, by Sugita et al. (2019), is based on Hayabusa2 ONC images obtained during the first month after the arrival of Hayabusa2 in June 2018. Utilizing…
162173 Ryugu, the target of Hayabusa2, has a round shape with an equatorial ridge, which is known as a spinning top-shape. A strong centrifugal force is a likely contributor to Ryugu's top-shaped features. Observations by Optical Navigation…
Asteroid (162173) Ryugu was the first spinning-top-shaped asteroid to be closely approached by a probe, the Hayabusa2 spacecraft, which sent numerous high-resolution images of Ryugu to the Earth and revealed the nature of this type of…
Asteroids that are targets of spacecraft missions are interesting because they present us with an opportunity to validate ground-based spectral observations. One such object is near-Earth asteroid (NEA) (162173) Ryugu, which is the target…
The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa 2 visited the asteroid (162173) Ryugu and provided many high-resolution images of its surface, revealing that Ryugu has a spinning-top shape with a prominent equatorial ridge, much like the shapes reported…
For the first time, spectral signs of subtle coma activity were observed simultaneously on four main-belt primitive asteroids (145) Adeona, (704) Interamnia, (779) Nina, and (1474) Beira around their perihelion distances in September 2012,…
C-type asteroids, such as asteroid (162173) Ryugu, may have played a key role in delivering light elements to early Earth. Nitrogen (N)-bearing molecules have been chemically identified in some Ryugu grains, and based on the faint 3.06 um…
The JAXA Hayabusa-2 mission was approved in 2010 and launched on December 3, 2014. The spacecraft will arrive at the near-Earth asteroid 162173 Ryugu in 2018 where it will perform a survey, land and obtain surface material, then depart in…
The Hayabusa 2 spacecraft sampled ~5.4 g of asteroid material from the Cb-type asteroid Ryugu. Initial analysis of the Ryugu materials revealed a mineralogical, chemical, and isotopic kinship to the CI chondrites. In this study, we have…
The near-Earth asteroid (162173) Ryugu displays a Cb-type average spectrum and a very low average normal albedo of 0.04. Although the majority of boulders on Ryugu have reflectance spectra and albedo similar to the Ryugu average, a small…
Icy planetesimals are likely to supply volatiles to terrestrial planets and serve as building blocks of icy bodies in the outer Solar System. Samples from the C-type asteroid Ryugu, collected by the Hayabusa-2 spacecraft, indicate a…
The current properties of small bodies provide important clues to their origin and history. However, how much small bodies were processed by past collisions and to what extent they retain a record of processes that took place during the…
The influence of space weathering on the observed spectra of C-complex asteroids remains uncertain. This has long hindered our understanding of their composition through telescope observations. Multi-band imaging of Ryugu by ONC-T on…