The Hayabusa 2 spacecraft‘s latest pic of the Ryugu asteroid , bring from a distance of just 25 miles ( 40 km ) , evince for the first time surface features like boulders and craters , in addition to unwrap the target ’s unique dice - similar visual aspect .
Remember the Rosetta spacecraft ’s first photos of Comet 67P / Churyumov - Gerasimenko andhow it wait like a rubber ducky ? We ’re now go bad through a similar phase with Japan ’s Hayabusa 2 ballistic capsule as it get progressively closer to the Ryugu asteroid , and we ’re starting to get the first inkling of what this distant object , located 175 million miles ( 280 million km ) from Earth , really search like .
Thisnew photoof Ryugu , take by the spacecraft ’s ONC - W1 ( Optical Navigation Camera – Wide angle ) on June 24 , reveals an object that appear to have roughly the embodiment of an eight - sided dice — a game piece that players of “ Dungeons and Dragons ” are very familiar with . Hayabusa 2 task manager Yuichi Tsuda said it depend like a piece offluorite , or even an abacus beadwork . The raw photo also evince crater , rocks , and other geographical features , which have in mind project planners can start to think about where the blank space investigation will dispatch its four landers .
Launched on December 3 , 2014 , Hayabusa 2 is now tease near to its target . The purpose of the missionary post is to collect sample distribution of the Ryugu asteroid and then return them to Earth for psychoanalysis . Ryugu is a Type C asteroid , hold back vestige of water system and organic fabric , and is 2,854 foot ( 870 time ) wide . By analyse the stuff bump on this distant rock , scientists will have a better thought of what the early weather were like at the clock time the Solar System formed some 4.6 billion years ago . Hayabusa 2 is expected to return to Earth with its samples in late 2020 .
As Tsuda pointed out in apress release , the surprising shape of Ryugu is both good and spoiled intelligence for the delegation .
“ First of all , the revolution bloc of the asteroid is perpendicular to the orbit , ” he said . “ This fact increases the degrees of freedom for landing and the rover decent operations . On the other helping hand , there is a top in the neighborhood of the equator and a turn of large craters , which makes the excerption of the landing place points both interesting and difficult . ”
Ryugu ’s seemingly octahedron - like form mean the direction of gravitative force on the wide-cut surface area of the asteroid will not channelize instantly down ; it ’s not a gross sphere . “ We therefore need a detailed investigation of these properties to articulate our future functioning programme , ” allege Tsuda .
This latest pic is enceinte , but it ’s just the starting time . In summation to Hayabusa 2 ’s ONC - W1 television camera , the Lander will also be able to snap pictures . We ’re about to get up near and personal with this intriguing celestial object .
[ JAXA ]
asteroidsAstronomyHayabusa2Science
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