Subj : Daily APOD Report To : All From : Ben Ritchey Date : Mon Sep 24 2018 05:54:55 Astronomy Picture of the Day Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2018 September 24 [2] Rover 1A Hops on Asteroid Ryugu Image Credit & Copyright: ISAS [3] , JAXA [4] , Hayabusa2 Mission [5] Explanation: Two small robots have begun hopping around the surface of asteroid Ryugu. The rovers, each the size of a small frying pan [6] , move around the low gravity of kilometer-sized 162173 Ryugu [7] by hopping, staying aloft for about 15 minutes and typically landing again several meters away. On Saturday, Rover 1A returned an early picture [8] of its new home world [9] , on the left, during one of its first hops. On Friday, lander MINERVA-II-1 [10] detached from its mothership Hayabusa2 [11] , dropped Rovers 1A and 1B, and then landed [12] on Ryugu. Studying Ryugu [13] could tell humanity [14] not only about Ryugu's surface and interior, but about what materials were available in the early Solar System [15] for the development of life [16] . Two more hopping rovers are planned [17] for release, and Hayabusa2 itself is scheduled to collect a surface sample from Ryugu [19] and return it to Earth [20] for detailed analysis before 2021. Tomorrow's picture: autumn skylights ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- < [21] | Archive [22] | Submissions [23] | Index [24] | Search [25] | Calendar [26] | RSS [27] | Education [28] | About APOD [29] | Discuss [30] | > [31] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [32] (MTU [33] ) & Jerry Bonnell [34] (UMCP [35] ) NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [36] . NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices [37] A service of: ASD [38] at NASA [39] / GSFC [40] & Michigan Tech. U. [41] ---------- Site notes: [1] archivepix.html [2] image/1809/Ryugu01_Rover1aHayabusa2_960.jpg [3] http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/ [4] http://global.jaxa.jp/about/index.html [5] http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/ [6] ap130401.html [7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/162173_Ryugu [8] http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/topics/20180922e/ [9] ap180822.html [10] http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/minerva-ii1-successful-landing.html [11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa2 [12] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkvEgvzAw0o [13] http://global.jaxa.jp/article/2014/interview/vol88/ [14] https://twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa [15] https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/our-solar-system/in-depth/ [16] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenesis [17] http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/topics/mission_schedule_e/ [18] https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/scan/services/missions/universe/ Hayabusa2.html [19] ap180625.html [20] https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/earth/overview/ [21] ap180923.html [22] archivepix.html [23] lib/apsubmit2015.html [24] lib/aptree.html [25] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search [26] calendar/allyears.html [27] /apod.rss [28] lib/edlinks.html [29] lib/about_apod.html [30] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=180924 [31] ap180925.html [32] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html [33] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ [34] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html [35] http://www.astro.umd.edu/ [36] lib/about_apod.html#srapply [37] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html [38] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ [39] https://www.nasa.gov/ [40] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ [41] http://www.mtu.edu/ --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A39 (Windows/32) * Origin: FIDONet - The Positronium Repository (1:393/68) .