Asteroid · 162173

Ryugu

A carbon-rich sample-return target

JAXA’s Hayabusa2 collected material from Ryugu and returned it to Earth. The samples preserve evidence of chemical alteration by water in its parent body.

Understand this world

Why bring asteroid material home?Connect an asteroid’s sampled surface to laboratory measurements of salts and organic compounds, with the limits of those interpretations. · 3 min

Measurements

Effective diameter
0.896 km
Semimajor axis
1.191 AU
Orbital period
474.703 Earth days
Orbit, physical values and uncertainties
eccentricity
.1910730046480051 ± 8.1156E-9
semi-major axis
1.190918932702464 au ± 2.2717E-9
perihelion distance
.9633664739388087 au ± 1.0094E-8
inclination; angle with respect to x-y ecliptic plane
5.866442486408568 deg ± 4.199E-7
longitude of the ascending node
251.2897123995624 deg ± 2.6083E-6
argument of perihelion
211.608993811871 deg ± 2.9589E-6
mean anomaly
62.34067409463987 deg ± 2.6185E-6
time of perihelion passage
2461118.296422313344 TDB ± 3.2282E-6
sidereal orbital period
474.7027265420688 d ± 1.3583E-6
mean motion
.7583693538530714 deg/d ± 2.17E-9
aphelion distance
1.418471391466119 au ± 2.7058E-9
absolute magnitude
19.55
diameter
0.896 km ± 0.004
extent
1.004x0.876 km
GM
3.00e-8 km^3/s^2 ± 0.04e-8
bulk density
1.19 g/cm^3 ± 0.02
rotation period
7.63262 h ± 0.00002
pole direction
96.3956/-66.3937 ± 0.0082/0.006
geometric albedo
0.045 ± 0.002
SMASSII spectral type
Cb

Published JPL orbital elements describe their stated epoch; they are not current positions. Small-body diameters can be effective/model-dependent sizes, not spherical shapes. Missing measurements remain unavailable. Pluto’s diameter uses the New Horizons reference rather than an empty SBDB field. Orbital epoch: JD 2461200.5 TDB.

Object reference ↗

Missions & milestones

1 launches · 6 connected events

These are target-related flights and every connected programme record in the production catalogue. A connected event may concern another stage or target of the same journey. Launch outcome does not establish arrival or current operation.

CONNECTED EVENT · UPCOMING

Hayabusa2 Asteroid 1998 KY26 Rendezvous

July 2031 · date to be confirmed

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CONNECTED EVENT · UPCOMING

Hayabusa2 Earth Flyby

June 2028 · date to be confirmed

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CONNECTED EVENT · UPCOMING

Hayabusa2 Earth Flyby

December 2027 · date to be confirmed

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CONNECTED EVENT

Hayabusa2 S-Type Asteroid (98943) Torifune Flyby

July 5, 2026 · UTC

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CONNECTED EVENT

Hayabusa-2 Sample Returns to Earth

December 5, 2020 · UTC

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CONNECTED EVENT

Hayabusa2 Second sample collection from Ryugu

July 11, 2019 · UTC

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TARGET-RELATED FLIGHT

Hayabusa-2

December 3, 2014 · UTC

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Complete source cohort: 9,386 records.

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