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. 2022 Mar 4;375(6584):1011-1016.
doi: 10.1126/science.abj8624. Epub 2022 Feb 10.

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

S Tachibana  1   2 , H Sawada  2 , R Okazaki  3 , Y Takano  4 , K Sakamoto  1   2 , Y N Miura  5 , C Okamoto  6 , H Yano  2 , S Yamanouchi  3 , P Michel  7 , Y Zhang  7 , S Schwartz  8   9 , F Thuillet  7 , H Yurimoto  10 , T Nakamura  11 , T Noguchi  3   12 , H Yabuta  13 , H Naraoka  3 , A Tsuchiyama  14   15 , N Imae  16 , K Kurosawa  17 , A M Nakamura  6 , K Ogawa  18 , S Sugita  1 , T Morota  1 , R Honda  19 , S Kameda  20 , E Tatsumi  1   21 , Y Cho  1 , K Yoshioka  1 , Y Yokota  2 , M Hayakawa  2 , M Matsuoka  2 , N Sakatani  20 , M Yamada  17 , T Kouyama  22 , H Suzuki  23 , C Honda  24 , T Yoshimitsu  2 , T Kubota  2 , H Demura  24 , T Yada  2 , M Nishimura  2 , K Yogata  2 , A Nakato  2 , M Yoshitake  2 , A I Suzuki  25   26 , S Furuya  1   2 , K Hatakeda  25 , A Miyazaki  2 , K Kumagai  25 , T Okada  2 , M Abe  2   27 , T Usui  2 , T R Ireland  28 , M Fujimoto  2 , T Yamada  2 , M Arakawa  6 , H C Connolly Jr  8   29 , A Fujii  2 , S Hasegawa  2 , N Hirata  24 , N Hirata  6 , C Hirose  30 , S Hosoda  2 , Y Iijima  2 , H Ikeda  2 , M Ishiguro  31 , Y Ishihara  18 , T Iwata  2   27 , S Kikuchi  2   17 , K Kitazato  24 , D S Lauretta  8 , G Libourel  7 , B Marty  32 , K Matsumoto  33   34 , T Michikami  35 , Y Mimasu  2 , A Miura  2   27 , O Mori  2 , K Nakamura-Messenger  36 , N Namiki  33   34 , A N Nguyen  36 , L R Nittler  37 , H Noda  33   34 , R Noguchi  2   38 , N Ogawa  18 , G Ono  30 , M Ozaki  2   27 , H Senshu  17 , T Shimada  18 , Y Shimaki  2 , K Shirai  2 , S Soldini  39 , T Takahashi  40 , Y Takei  2   30 , H Takeuchi  2   27 , R Tsukizaki  2 , K Wada  17 , Y Yamamoto  2   27 , K Yoshikawa  30 , K Yumoto  1 , M E Zolensky  36 , S Nakazawa  2 , F Terui  2 , S Tanaka  2   27 , T Saiki  2 , M Yoshikawa  2   27 , S Watanabe  41 , Y Tsuda  2   42
Affiliations

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

S Tachibana et al. Science. .

Abstract

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

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