Pebbles and sand on asteroid (162173) Ryugu: In situ observation and particles returned to Earth

• DOI: 10.1126/science.abj8624
• Publication Date: 2022-03-03T18:55:57Z
• Authors: S. Tachibana; H. Sawada; R. Okazaki; Y. Takano; K. Sakamoto; Y. N. Miura; C. Okamoto; H. Yano; S. Yamanouchi; P. Michel; Y. Zhang; S. Schwartz; F. Thuillet; H. Yurimoto; T. Nakamura; T. Noguchi; H. Yabuta; H. Naraoka; A. Tsuchiyama; N. Imae; K. Kurosawa; A. M. Nakamura; K. Ogawa; S. Sugita; T. Morota; R. Honda; S. Kameda; E. Tatsumi; Y. Cho; K. Yoshioka; Y. Yokota; M. Hayakawa; M. Matsuoka; N. Sakatani; M. Yamada; T. Kouyama; H. Suzuki; C. Honda; T. Yoshimitsu; T. Kubota; H. Demura; T. Yada; M. Nishimura; K. Yogata; A. Nakato; M. Yoshitake; A. I. Suzuki; S. Furuya; K. Hatakeda; A. Miyazaki; K. Kumagai; T. Okada; M. Abe; T. Usui; T. R. Ireland; M. Fujimoto; T. Yamada; M. Arakawa; H. C. Connolly; A. Fujii; S. Hasegawa; N. Hirata; N. Hirata; C. Hirose; S. Hosoda; Y. Iijima; H. Ikeda; M. Ishiguro; Y. Ishihara; T. Iwata; S. Kikuchi; K. Kitazato; D. S. Lauretta; G. Libourel; B. Marty; K. Matsumoto; T. Michikami; Y. Mimasu; A. Miura; O. Mori; K. Nakamura-Messe...; N. Namiki; A. N. Nguyen; L. R. Nittler; H. Noda; R. Noguchi; N. Ogawa; G. Ono; M. Ozaki; H. Senshu; T. Shimada; Y. Shimaki; K. Shirai; S. Soldini; T. Takahashi; Y. Takei; H. Takeuchi; R. Tsukizaki; K. Wada; Y. Yamamoto; K. Yoshikawa; K. Yumoto; M. E. Zolensky; S. Nakazawa; F. Terui; S. Tanaka; T. Saiki; M. Yoshikawa; S. Watanabe; Y. Tsuda
• Keywords: Touchdown

The Hayabusa2 spacecraft investigated the C-type (carbonaceous) asteroid (162173) Ryugu. mission performed two landing operations to collect samples of surface and subsurface material, latter exposed by an artificial impact. We present images second touchdown site, finding that ejecta from impact crater was at sample location. Surface pebbles both sites show morphological variations ranging rugged smooth, similar Ryugu's boulders, shapes quasi-spherical flattened. were returned Earth on 6 December 2020. describe morphology >5 grams sand. Their diverse color, shape, structure are consistent with observed materials Ryugu; we conclude they a representative asteroid.