Bibcode
Barucci, M. A.; Hasselmann, P. H.; Fulchignoni, M.; Honda, R.; Yokota, Y.; Sugita, S.; Kitazato, K.; Deshapriya, J. D. P.; Perna, D.; Tatsumi, E.; Domingue, D.; Morota, T.; Kameda, S.; Iwata, T.; Abe, M.; Ohtake, M.; Matsuura, S.; Matsuoka, M.; Hiroi, T.; Nakamura, T.; Kouyama, T.; Suzuki, H.; Yamada, M.; Sakatani, N.; Honda, C.; Ogawa, K.; Hayakawa, M.; Yoshioka, K.; Cho, Y.; Sawada, H.; Takir, D.; Vilas, F.; Hirata, N.; Hirata, N.; Tanaka, S.; Yamamoto, Y.; Yoshikawa, M.; Watanabe, S.; Tsuda, Y.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 629, id.A13, 10 pp.
Advertised on:
9
2019
Journal
Citations
14
Refereed citations
14
Description
Context. Starting from late June 2018, the JAXA asteroid sample return
mission Hayabusa2 acquired a large quantity of resolved images and
spectra of the surface of the asteroid (162173) Ryugu. Aims: By
studying the visible and near-infrared spectral behavior across the
surface of Ryugu using a statistical analysis, we aim to distinguish
spectral homogeneous groups and to detect the small heterogeneities.
This allows us to better constrain the surface composition variations.
Methods: In order to isolate and interpret the difference in the
asteroid surface spectral behavior, we applied the G-mode multivariate
statistical analysis to a set of pixels containing information of (i)
the visible ONC-T spectrophotometry, and (ii) the near-infrared NIRS3
spectra thereby obtaining automatic statistical clustering at different
confidence levels. Results: The analysis of both ONC-T and NIRS3
data allows us to highlight small spectral variations on the Ryugu
surface. At a 3σ confidence level, only two groups are evident,
while going down to 2σ more groups are obtained with differences
in spectral slope and band depth. Conclusions: The identified
groups have been associated with main morphological surface features.
The spectral slope variations that characterize the small groups
obtained by ONC-T data analysis, are interpreted as a consequence of
space weathering with the presence of more or less fresh material and/or
the different grain sizes of the regolith. The variations found
analyzing the NIRS3 data are attributed to slightly different contents
of hydrated material and different regolith sizes. The distribution on
the Ryugu surface of the groups obtained by the analysis of the two
instruments indicates a clear spectral dichotomy both between the east
and west, and the north and south hemispheres. Small sized regolith
grains associated to the redder spectra seem concentrated in the
southwestern part of the body.
Related projects
Minor Bodies of the Solar System
This project studies the physical and compositional properties of the so-called minor bodies of the Solar System, that includes asteroids, icy objects, and comets. Of special interest are the trans-neptunian objects (TNOs), including those considered the most distant objects detected so far (Extreme-TNOs or ETNOs); the comets and the comet-asteroid
Julia de
León Cruz