The quarry for the asteroid recovery mission Hayabusa2 now has a name ! Ryugu is leave the undersea cosmos of myth to take up hall in the independent asteroid belt just in meter to receive a drove of robotic visitor in 2018 .
Ryugu is a 1 - km wide C - type asteroid with a high-pitched chance of organic and hydrated materials than the entropy - type asteroid visited by the original ill - fat yet somehow - successful Hayabusa mission . Originally key out 1999 JU3 , asteroid 162173 was the subject of a naming contest .
Of 7,336 submission , 30 were for Ryugu , with another 13 related variation .
The name comes from an ancient story in Japanese culture , Urashima Taro . The main character recollect a casket from Ryugu Castle at the bottom of the ocean . The name evokes the Leslie Townes Hope of finding water on the remote rock , and echo back the theme of find gem from the distant asteroid back to the Earth .
The name meet International Asteroid Union guideline of not already live anywhere else in the solar system , not race into earmark issues , and having an parentage in mythology . It was already officially adopted much quicker than the distinctive three - calendar month waiting period .
The asteroid is the target of the Japanese space agency ( JAXA ) Hayabusa2 mission . TheHayabusa2 foreign mission is strange , even for asteroid try . It will drop a lander , boom the asteroid with an impactor to quetch up dust , then ricochet around the asteroid pull in samples before returning home . The spacecraft will also spill outa trio of roversto explore the asteroid even more exhaustively . Between orbiter , lander , rovers , and markers , Ryugu will shortly be home to a small horde of robot .
An earlier reading of this article had the roamer come from the lander , not Hayabusa2 like a shot . They ’ll be beat out at different landing points to better search the clod of stone . Thank you to Simon Tardivel for the correction !
[ JAXA ] viaPlanetary Society .
reach out to the author at[email protected]or follow her at@MikaMcKinnon .
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