Interactive Ryugu atlas
Layers
Photometric shape renders form alone under a movable light source. Radius map colours each vertex by distance from the body centre, resolving the equatorial ridge and the polar flattening. Gravity slope renders the per-facet effective-slope solution. Plate mesh renders the reconstruction itself.
TD1 sampled undisturbed surface material; TD2 sampled beside the ejecta of the Small Carry-on Impactor. The returned grains contain abundant hydrated minerals and organic matter and are compositionally closest to CI (Ivuna-type) carbonaceous chondrites.
Shape model
The local ryugu.obj is the JAXA/DARTS 49,152-plate reduction of the shape of Watanabe et al. (2019). Vertex coordinates are in kilometres, in the body-fixed frame.
Geopotential slope
Each of the 49,152 plates carries its archived geopotential slope, computed for a uniform interior.
Nomenclature
Coordinates are planetocentric latitude and east longitude over 0–360°, the IAU system for Ryugu. Thirteen surface names are approved as of 2026 August. Marker sizes are symbolic and do not represent footprints.
Orbital position
Ryugu is propagated from current JPL-derived orbital elements. The positional context is live; the Hayabusa2 surface record is archival.
Data provenance
- Watanabe, S., Hirabayashi, M., Hirata, N., et al. (2019), “Hayabusa2 arrives at the carbonaceous asteroid 162173 Ryugu—A spinning top–shaped rubble pile”, Science 364, 268–272. doi:10.1126/science.aav8032 — source of the 896 m equivalent diameter, the 7.63262 h rotation period and the 1.19 g/cm³ bulk density
- JAXA/ISAS DARTS — shape models and per-plate gravity and slope derivatives for Watanabe et al. (2019) — 49,152-plate mesh in kilometres; slopes computed at a uniform 1,200 kg/m³
- USGS / IAU — Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature: Ryugu — thirteen approved names; planetocentric, +east, 0–360°
- JAXA Hayabusa2 — first touchdown site selection and reconstruction
- Yada, T., Abe, M., Okada, T., et al. (2022), “Preliminary analysis of the Hayabusa2 samples returned from C-type asteroid Ryugu”, Nature Astronomy 6, 214–220. doi:10.1038/s41550-021-01550-6 — source of the 5.424 ± 0.217 g returned mass and the chamber A / chamber C assignment
- Nakamura, T., Matsumoto, M., Amano, K., et al. (2023), “Formation and evolution of carbonaceous asteroid Ryugu: Direct evidence from returned samples”, Science 379, eabn8671. doi:10.1126/science.abn8671
- Yokoyama, T., Nagashima, K., Nakai, I., et al. (2023), “Samples returned from the asteroid Ryugu are similar to Ivuna-type carbonaceous meteorites”, Science 379, eabn7850. doi:10.1126/science.abn7850
- Arakawa, M., Saiki, T., Wada, K., et al. (2020), “An artificial impact on the asteroid (162173) Ryugu formed a crater in the gravity-dominated regime”, Science 368, 67–71. doi:10.1126/science.aaz1701