#HAYABUSA-2

[thepastisalreadywritten]

The surface of the asteroid Ryugu taken by the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa-2. That pitch black background is so scary.

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162173 Ryugu, provisional designation 1999 JU3, is a near-Earth object and a potentially hazardous asteroid of the Apollo group.

It measures approximately 900 metres (3,000 ft) in diameter and is a dark object of the rare spectral type Cb, with qualities of both a C-type asteroid and a B-type asteroid.

On 27 June 2018, the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2 arrived at the asteroid.

After making measurements and taking samples, Hayabusa2 left Ryugu for Earth on 13 November 2019 and returned the sample capsule to Earth on 5 December 2020.

The samples showed the presence of organic compounds, such as uracil (one of the four components in RNA) and vitamin B3.

[awidevastdominion]

A picture of the surface of the asteroid Ryugu taken by Japan’s spacecraft, Hayabusa-2, in 2018.

[oldschoolsciencefiction]

The capsule from Japan’s Hayabusa-2 spacecraft containing samples from the asteroid Ryugu has been found.

[therealuniverse]

Ryugu’s healed sunburn This is the asteroid Ryugu, a 900 meter in diameter pile of boulders that was recently orbited and sampled by the Japanese Hayabusa-2 Spacecraft. Although the samples of that mission have not yet returned, observations of the surface by the spacecraft’s spectrometers have revealed something interesting about its history. At some point over the last few million years, Ryugu’s orbit changed to bring it closer to the sun, but then its orbit was changed again and it scattered back out in the solar system closer to Earth.

The key to this observation is called “Space weathering”. When rocks and dust are exposed to the sun’s radiation environment, some of the material right at the surface breaks down as the mineral structures are destroyed by high-energy cosmic rays and by micrometeorite impacts. This weathering is known from lunar rocks, and has the effect of making the material look more “Red” to spectrometers. When space weathering happens, it should only occur right at the surface – the outermost millimeter of the asteroid, because all the cosmic rays are absorbed right there. However, Ryugu has a moderately sized crater that has exposed material on the walls, Hayabusa-2 landed on one spot and its engines scattered surface dust. and Hayabusa-2 also fired an experimental bullet into the asteroid to create a small crater of its own. In all cases, darker reddened material was observed deeper in Ryugu, away from the surface layer. The science team suggests this tells us a portion of Ryugu’s history. First, at some point in recent history, Ryugu must have voyaged closer to the sun, creating a layer of intense space weathering at the surface. Then, Ryugu’s orbit changed again, taking it back out to the Earth’s orbit and slowing the space weathering rate. After this happened, tiny impacts with micrometeorites began reworking the surface, pushing some of the highly-weathered material deeper into the asteroid, where it is found today. Based on the depths to this layer, the scientists estimated that Ryugu’s voyage near the sun lasted 1 million years or less, took it in near the orbit of Mercury, and the most likely possibility is that it happened around 9 million years ago – but that needs to be confirmed with the samples once they are returned by the spacecraft later this year. -JBB Image credits: https://eos.org/articles/sunburned-surface-reveals-asteroid-formation-and-orbital-secrets Original Paper: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6491/654

[kosmos-x]

Ударное воздействие обеспечило ценную информацию о малых небесных телах

900-метровому астероиду Рюгу всего 9 миллионов лет - а его поверхность, вероятно, даже моложе 100... Читать дальше »

[gaetaniu]

L'analisi dei dati dei crateri di impatto dell'asteroide Ryugu ci svela una storia geologica complicata

L’analisi dei dati dei crateri di impatto dell’asteroide Ryugu ci svela una storia geologica complicata

Dimensioni e posizione dei crateri su Ryugu. I crateri sono numerati in ordine di grandezza.

L’analisi dei crateri da impatto su Ryugu utilizzando i dati di immagini di telerilevamento della navicella spaziale Hayabusa 2 ci ha svelato la storia geologica dell’asteroide  Near-Earth.

Un gruppo di ricerca guidato dal professore Naoyuki Hirata del Dipartimento di Planetologia della Kobe University’s…

[releasesoon]

Japan Just Landed a Spacecraft on an Asteroid, And The Photos Are Nuts

Japan Just Landed a Spacecraft on an Asteroid, And The Photos Are Nuts

The life of an asteroid is lonely. The rocks spend eons drifting through the cold vacuum of space.

But on Wednesday, the asteroid Ryugu welcomed a special visitor: Japan’s Hayabusa-2 probe successfully landed on the asteroid’s surface at 21:06 ET (01:06 UTC on Thursday).

  The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched Hayabusa-2into space in December 2014. Its mission: explore and…

[gaetaniu]

La sonda giapponese Hayabusa-2 sta per dirigersi verso la Terra

La sonda giapponese Hayabusa-2 sta per dirigersi verso la Terra

La sonda giapponese Hayabusa-2 lascerà la sua orbita intorno all’ asteroide Ryugu e si dirigerà verso la Terra mercoledì dopo una missione senza precedenti, portando campioni che potrebbero far luce sulle origini del Sistema Solare.

Il lungo viaggio di ritorno inizierebbe alle 10:05, con la sonda che dovrebbe portarci i suoi preziosi campioni verso la fine del 2020, ha detto la Japan Aerospace…

[giuseppebenanti]

I rovers di Hayabusa atterrano sull'asteroide Ryugu

I rovers di Hayabusa atterrano sull’asteroide Ryugu

I rover di Hayabusa 2  salteranno sulla superficie – fino a 15 metri di altezza e resteranno in aria per 15 minuti

Un paio di rover robot

I luoghi prescelti per l’atterraggio su Ryugu

sono atterrati su un asteroide (Ryugu) e hanno iniziato un sondaggio, ha comunicato l’agenzia spaziale giapponese, e quindi sta conducendo una missione che mira a far luce sulle origini del sistema solare.

[thoughtlessarse]

Two tiny robots have landed safely on an asteroid after a Japanese spacecraft dropped them there on Friday. The scientists behind the historic mission expressed their delight as the rovers sent back the first images from the surface of the space rock Ryugu. Dubbed MINERVA-II1, the robotic explorers are the first of their kind to be successfully landed on an asteroid.The Japanese space agency JAXA announced that both units were operational after a period of silence between the unmanned spacecraft Hayabusa-2 depositing them and connection being established with the team on Earth.

[gaetaniu]

L'asteroide Ryugu è un fragile ammasso di macerie

L’asteroide Ryugu è un fragile ammasso di macerie

Quando la navicella spaziale giapponese Hayabusa 2 è arrivata all’asteroide Ryugu nel giugno 2018, ha portato con sé quattro piccoli rover. Hayabusa 2 è principalmente una missione di ritorno, ma la JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) ha inviato dei rover per esplorare la superficie dell’asteroide e imparare quanto più possibile dalla loro visita. Inoltre, non c’è alcuna garanzia che il…