[astro-ph.EP] The Near InfraRed Spectrometer (NIRS3) onboard Hayabusa2 observed asteroid (162173) Ryugu, searching especially for signatures of water-bearing minerals.
![Map of the (top) phase ratio I(5◦ )/I(15◦ ) at 2.0 µm and (bottom) phase reddening (with spectral slope computed between 2.1 µm and 2.5 µm). The maps were computed using a 10◦ × 10◦ grid at the Ryugu surface. The particularly high phase ratio and low phase reddening values for some grid elements located at latitude above 10◦N are due to a narrower phase angle range (see Appendix F, Fig. 20). All grid elements above this latitude were discarded for the computation of the average east and west properties.-- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Updated.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
[astro-ph.EP] The Near InfraRed Spectrometer (NIRS3) onboard Hayabusa2 observed asteroid (162173) Ryugu, searching especially for signatures of water-bearing minerals.