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The images are different from the majority of previous observations of asteroids. For many decades, other spacecraft and telescopes have shown asteroids in the form of tiny spots of light, blurred spots or blurred bumps of smooth rocks. My favorite description of a photo, dating from 1989, reads: "The slightly elongated trail of this image is the asteroid."
An interstellar tourist cask through the solar system
Telescope technology has improved considerably since the discovery of asteroids more than 200 years ago, but today only the most powerful telescopes can solve distinct problems on the surface of objects. The best way to photograph an asteroid is to visit or at least fly over.
In 1991, the Galileo spacecraft passed the asteroid Gaspra en route to Jupiter. The NASA engineers used the spacecraft data to assemble an image of the asteroid, which The New York Times described as "the first ever close photograph of a rock asteroid traversing the solar system". That was the picture:
Galileo was about 10,000 miles from the asteroid when his camera pointed to Gaspra. the Time referred to the composite photo as "a net portrait" of an asteroid, and it was indeed at the time.
The Hayabusa2 mission will produce many more close-up images in the coming weeks, thanks to the two robots. JAXA, the Japanese space agency, calls them rovers, but it's a bit of a misnomer. The robots do not have wheels, which would not be effective in the low gravity environment of Ryugu. Instead, the robots are designed to repel and literally bounce around the surface.
As the mission provides us with more detailed views of Ryugu, it will also offer an unprecedented glimpse of the ancient past of the solar system. Scientists believe that asteroids such as Ryugu are remnants of the system's creation about 4.5 billion years ago. The rocks have remained virtually unchanged since then, which means that they still contain the materials – a mixture of rocks, minerals and organic compounds – that have fused to form the planets.
The spacecraft Hayabusa2 will soon try to delve into part of this story. The probe will launch a projectile at Ryugu to create a crater and expose buried material for a long time, then plunge his instruments inside to collect samples before returning to Earth. Like both robots, Hayabusa2 has cameras on board. Our views on an asteroid will become even clearer.
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