Images from the surface of asteroid Ryugu show rocks similar to carbonaceous chondrite meteorites.
Ralf JaumannN SchmitzTra-Mi HoStefan E SchröderKatharina OttoKatrin StephanS ElgnerK KrohnFrank PreuskerF ScholtenJens BieleS UlamecC KrauseSeiji SugitaK-D MatzThomas RoatschR ParekhStefano MottolaMatthias GrottPatrick MichelF TrauthanA KonczH MichaelisC LangeJ T GrundmannM MaibaumK SasakiF WolffJ ReillAurélie Moussi-SoffysL LordaWladimir NeumannJean-Baptiste VincentR WagnerJean-Pierre BibringShingo KamedaHajime YanoSei'ichiro WatanabeMakoto YoshikawaYuichi TsudaTatsuaki OkadaT YoshimitsuYuya MimasuTakanao SaikiHikaru YabutaH RauerRie HondaTomokatsu MorotaYasuhiro YokotaToru KouyamaPublished in: Science (New York, N.Y.) (2020)
The near-Earth asteroid (162173) Ryugu is a 900-m-diameter dark object expected to contain primordial material from the solar nebula. The Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) landed on Ryugu's surface on 3 October 2018. We present images from the MASCOT camera (MASCam) taken during the descent and while on the surface. The surface is covered by decimeter- to meter-sized rocks, with no deposits of fine-grained material. Rocks appear either bright, with smooth faces and sharp edges, or dark, with a cauliflower-like, crumbly surface. Close-up images of a rock of the latter type reveal a dark matrix with small, bright, spectrally different inclusions, implying that it did not experience extensive aqueous alteration. The inclusions appear similar to those in carbonaceous chondrite meteorites.