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Bruce Murray Space Image Library

Breccia boulder on Ryugu

Breccia boulder on Ryugu
Breccia boulder on Ryugu Ryugu is a rubble pile -- and even some of its rubble is made of other rubble. This meter-wide boulder on Ryugu near the MINERVA-II landing site is a breccia, made of shattered bits of other rock that have been glued together, probably thanks to the heat generated during an impact into Ryugu's parent body. JAXA, University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, University of Aizu, AIST

The image is a detail from:

Boulders all the way down
Boulders all the way down Ryugu's surface is rocky on all scales. Hayabusa2 captured this photo during its descent to drop the MINERVA-II rovers on the surface. Near the upper right is a meter-size boulder that is composed of rocks of different shades. This is a breccia, a type of rock that forms in impacts that generate enough heat to melt rock and weld rock fragments together.Image: JAXA, University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, University of Aizu, AIST