Earth and moon observations by thermal infrared imager on Hayabusa2 and the application to detectability of asteroid 162173 Ryugu

Abstract

Thermal Infrared Imager TIR on Hayabusa2 has proven its in-flight performance to detect celestial bodies during the cruise phase, especially by the observations of the Earth and the Moon before and after the Earth swing-by on 3rd of December 2015. The result indicates that the target C-type asteroid 162173 Ryugu will be detected from the distance of 3000 km at the beginning of the approach phase, and that a C-type small moon larger than 1 m will be detected from the home position, 20 km from the asteroid, if it orbits around the asteroid.