Copyright © Michael Richmond.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
The asteroid 162173 Ryugu orbits the Sun in a path which takes it from the Earth's distance to Mars' distance from the Sun. Ryugu isn't very large; its radius is roughly 500 meters.
In late 2014, the Japanese Space Agency JAXA launched a spacecraft called Hayabusa2 ("Falcon2" in Japanese) to visit this asteroid.
Image of Hayabusa2 courtesy of
JAXA
Over the summer of 2018, the probe finally caught up to Ryugu and entered into an orbit around it.
Click on the image below to see an animation of the spacecraft's "rehearsal" approach to Ryugu. Starting on 2018 Sep 11, the probe left its regular orbit around the asteroid and came within about 600 m of the surface, before rising up and away again.
Images courtesy of JAXA
and animation by (I believe)
Emily Lakdawalla
The spacecraft successfully launched 2 of the 3 rovers it carried to the asteroid; the third rover will be released next year.
Slide 38 from
Hayabusa2 Information Fact Sheet
Slide 39 from
Hayabusa2 Information Fact Sheet
Those rovers have sent a few very images showing their successful landing on Ryugu:
Image taken by
Rover 1-A courtesy of JAXA
Image taken by
Rover 1-B courtesy of JAXA
In addition to releasing the third rover in 2019, the plan is for Hayabusa itself to touch down gently on the surface, grab a sample of material, and lift off. It will then over a year slowly coming back to Earth, where it will return the sample for detailed inspection in labs on the ground.
Last modified by MWR 9/25/2018
Copyright © Michael Richmond.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.