Emily Lakdawalla • Jun 14, 2018
Hayabusa2: Ryugu takes shape
Hayabusa2 is now less than 1000 kilometers away from Ryugu, and the tiny asteroid is beginning to betray its shape. There are enough pixels across it now in Hayabusa2's telescopic optical navigation camera to see that it's definitely not perfectly round. It seems more faceted, with an equatorial bulge, which is a commonly predicted shape for rubble-pile asteroids. There are even hints of surface features, in that the variation in pixel value across the disk doesn't appear perfectly uniform. It's getting exciting! We're about to turn another world from a point of light into a WORLD! More information, including a long exposure shot, are on the Hayabusa2 website.
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