Hayabusa2, Japan's Mission To Ryugu and Other Asteroids

Hayabusa2, Japan's Mission To Ryugu and Other Asteroids

Launched by JAXA in 2014, Hayabusa2 explored the carbon-rich asteroid Ryugu, collected surface and subsurface samples, and returned them to Earth in 2020. The mission provides insight into Solar System formation, organic molecule origins, and planetary evolution, while its extended mission targets asteroids 2001 CC21 and 1998 KY26 for continued study.

References

Yada, T., Abe, M., Okada, T., Nakato, A., Yogata, K., Miyazaki, A., Hatakeda, K., Kumagai, K., Nishimura, M., Hitomi, Y., Soejima, H., Yoshitake, M., Iwamae, A., Furuya, S., Uesugi, M., Karouji, Y., Usui, T., Hayashi, T., Yamamoto, D., … Tsuda, Y. (2021). Preliminary analysis of the Hayabusa2 samples returned from C-Type asteroid Ryugu. Nature Astronomy, 6(2), 214–220. Tsuda, Y., Yoshikawa, M., Saiki, T., Nakazawa, S., & Watanabe, S.-ichiro. (2019). Hayabusa2–sample return and Kinetic Impact Mission to near-earth asteroid Ryugu. Acta Astronautica, 156, 387–393.

Topics

  • JAXA
  • Hayabusa2
  • asteroid Ryugu
  • sample return mission
  • carbonaceous asteroids
  • planetary formation
  • organic molecules
  • remote sensing
  • LIDAR
  • spectrometry
  • asteroid evolution
  • Solar System history