Japanese Hayabusa2 spacecraft has successfully carried out an impact experiment using a small carry-on impactor (SCI) on an asteroid (162173) Ryugu. We examine the size distribution of particles inside and outside an artificial impact crater (the SCI crater) based on the images taken by the optical navigation camera onboard the Hayabusa2 spacecraft

Volatile and organic-rich C-type asteroids may have been one of the main sources of Earth's water. Our best insight into their chemistry is currently provided by carbonaceous chondritic meteorites, but the meteorite record is biased: only the strongest types survive atmospheric entry and are then modified by interaction with the terrestrial

The smallest member of the Didymos binary near-Earth object system (Dimorphos) is the target of the DART/LICIACube mission, the first attempt to change the orbit of another celestial body via a kinetic impactor. It is important to characterize the unperturbed system prior to the DART impact. In this work we obtained, for the first time, spectral

Context. Spectrophotometry data of asteroids obtained in the 1980s showed that there are large variations in their near-ultraviolet (NUV) reflectance spectra. Reflectance spectra at NUV wavelengths are important because they help detect the presence of hydrated minerals and organics on the asteroid surfaces. However, the NUV wavelength region has

We performed photometric observations of the binary near-Earth asteroid (65803) Didymos in support of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission that will test the Kinetic Impactor technology for diverting dangerous asteroids. It will hit the Didymos secondary, called Dimorphos, on 2022 September 26. We observed Didymos with 11 telescopes

This is the fourth data paper publishing lightcurve survey work of 52 Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) using 10 telescopes available to the EURONEAR network between 2017 and 2020. Forty six targets were not observed before our runs (88% of the sample) but some of these were targeted during the same oppositions mainly by Brian Warner. We propose new

We describe results of a planetary defense exercise conducted during the close approach to Earth by the near-Earth asteroid (99942) Apophis during 2020 December-2021 March. The planetary defense community has been conducting observational campaigns since 2017 to test the operational readiness of the global planetary defense capabilities. These

We report the results we derived analyzing photometric measurements obtained at different phase angles for 15 Near-Earth Objects (NEOs), observed from Campo Imperatore observatory, and Observatório Astronômico do Sertão de Itaparica (OASI). The performed analysis allows us to taxonomically classify them using several independent techniques, thus

Over a broad size range, the shapes of impact fragments from catastrophic disruptions are distributed around the mean axial ratio 2: √2: 1, irrespective of experimental conditions and target materials. Although most blocks on asteroids are likely to be impact fragments, there is not enough quantitative data for reliable statistics on their three

We present here a dynamical and observational study of the comet C/2017 U7 (PANSTARRS). This comet was discovered in 2017 and found to have a hyperbolic orbit. Our dynamical analysis shows that the object has probably originated in the Oort cloud, however an interstellar origin cannot be discarded. The observations were obtained in 2018 and 2019

Context. Despite the observed signs of large impacts on the surface of Ceres, there is no confirmed collisional family associated with this dwarf planet. After a dynamical and photometric study, a sample of 156 asteroids were proposed as candidate members of a Ceres collisional family. Aims: Our main objective is to study the connection between

Planetesimals—the initial stage of the planetary formation process—are considered to be initially very porous aggregates of dusts 1,2, and subsequent thermal and compaction processes reduce their porosity 3. The Hayabusa2 spacecraft found that boulders on the surface of asteroid (162173) Ryugu have an average porosity of 30-50% (refs. 4-6), higher

Context. The Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey (J-PLUS) is an observational campaign that aims to obtain photometry in 12 ultraviolet-visible filters (0.3−1 μm) over ∼8500 deg 2 of the sky observable from Javalambre (Teruel, Spain). Due to its characteristics and observation strategy, this survey will allow a great number of Solar System

Context. Recent results for asteroid rotation periods from the TESS mission showed how strongly previous studies have underestimated the number of slow rotators, revealing the importance of studying those targets. For most slowly rotating asteroids (those with P > 12 h), no spin and shape model is available because of observation selection effects

Ryugu is a carbonaceous rubble-pile asteroid visited by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. Small rubble pile asteroids record the thermal evolution of their much larger parent bodies. However, recent space weathering and/or solar heating create ambiguities between the uppermost layer observable by remote-sensing and the pristine material from the parent

Using the multiband imager MapCam on board the OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer) spacecraft, we identified 77 instances of proposed exogenic materials distributed globally on the surface of the B-type asteroid (101955) Bennu. We identified materials as exogenic on the basis of an

The near-Earth objects with low-Jovian Tisserand invariant (T J) represent about 9 per cent of the known objects orbiting in the near-Earth space, being subject of numerous planetary encounters and large temperature variations. We aim to make a spectral characterization for a large sample of NEOs with T J ≤ 3.1. Consequently, we can estimate the

On 2019 January 8, the Telescopic Optical Navigation Camera (ONC-T) on board the Hayabusa2 spacecraft observed the Cb-type asteroid 162173 Ryugu under near-opposition illumination and viewing conditions from approximately 20 km in distance. Although opposition observations have never been used for mapping purposes of a planetary body, we found

Many small boulders with reflectance values higher than 1.5 times the average reflectance have been found on the near-Earth asteroid 162,173 Ryugu. Based on their visible wavelength spectral differences, Tatsumi et al. (2021, Nature Astronomy, 5, doi:10.1038/s41550-020-1179-z) defined two bright boulder classes: C-type and S-type. These two

Examination of the opposition geometry properties show that Ryugu's surface regolith is commensurate with laboratory studies of the photometric behavior of powdered carbonaceous chondrites. The regolith is consistent with a broad grain size distribution that contains a fine-grained component.