Jason Davis • Jun 18, 2018
Rotatin' Ryugu!
One of the coolest things about a mission to a new world is that as the spacecraft approaches, you get to see the world gradually take shape before your eyes. Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft is now less than 200 kilometers from Ryugu, the small, near-Earth asteroid from which it will collect a sample for return to Earth in 2020. Until now, we've only known Ryugu as a point of light, but behold!—It's starting to become a lumpy asteroid in Hayabusa2's navigation cameras:
Just for reference, here's what shape models of Ryugu were predicting back in 2017:
And finally, here's a recap of what we've seen so far during the approach:
Hayabusa2 is closing on Ryugu at a leisurely 0.83 meters per second. It will arrive between June 21 and July 5, approaching to within 20 kilometers.
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