JAXA
Ryugu Seen From a Distance of 920km (Press Release)
Hayabusa 2 is steadily approaching asteroid Ryugu. Figure 1 (above) shows a photograph of Ryugu taken on June 13, 2018 with the ONC-T (Optical Navigation Camera - Telescopic) from a distance of about 920km. The celestial body shining brightly in the center of the frame is Ryugu. The movement of Ryugu (in comparison to the background stars) can be seen by comparing this image with those taken on June 6 and June 10. The brightness of Ryugu is now about -6.6 mag (astronomical magnitude: a logarithmic scale for the apparent brightness for an object).
Figure 2 (below) shows the photograph taken with an exposure time of about 0.09 seconds. The part of the image that covers Ryugu is now about 10 pixels in diameter. We are describing the shape seen so far as a "dango"-type, as it looks like the round dango Japanese sweet dumpling made from rice flour (they taste delicious and we can recommend trying one). However, the shape does seem a little more angular.
These images were taken on June 13th, the same day that Hayabusa returned to Earth eight years ago. Just eight years later, Hayabusa 2 is less than 1000 km from asteroid Ryugu. We are looking forward to seeing what developments come next!
Source: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
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JAXA
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