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Arrival, touchdown and sequel to the voyage of Hayabusa2

Nature Astronomy volume 3, pages 287–289 (2019)Cite this article

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On 27 June 2018 the Hayabusa2 spacecraft arrived at the carbonaceous asteroid Ryugu — a top-shaped asteroid with a very dark surface and many boulders. After a careful search for a safe and flat landing site, the first touchdown successfully took place on 22 February 2019.

Ryugu is the first top-shaped asteroid to be reached by a spacecraft3. The asteroid has a very low geometric albedo (4.5% at 0.55 μm), which makes it one of the darkest bodies in the Solar System2. Its mean radius is about 450 m and its rotation period is 7.6 hours3. The size and rotation period of Ryugu matched the values predicted by the ground-based light curve observation, but its shape was different from the expected spherical shape5. Ryugu is likely to be a rubble pile, surmised from the large number of boulders seen across the surface and the low density (1.2 g cm–3) of the asteroid3.

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Fig. 1: Asteroid (162173) Ryugu.

JAXA, University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, University of Aizu, AIST.

Fig. 2: Landing site selection.

JAXA, University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, University of Aizu, AIST (a); and JAXA (b).

Fig. 3: Image of touchdown site acquired by the ONC wide-angle camera during the spacecraft ascent immediately after touchdown on 22 February 2019.

JAXA, University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, University of Aizu, AIST.

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  1. Department of Earth and Planetary Systems Science, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima, Japan

    Hikaru Yabuta

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  1. Hikaru Yabuta
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Yabuta, H. Arrival, touchdown and sequel to the voyage of Hayabusa2. Nat Astron 3, 287–289 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-019-0750-y

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