They are finally closing in on their destination asteroid - Ryugu. As of 14 June 2018, the distance between Hayabusa2 and Ryugu is less than 770 kilometres and the closing speed is 2.1 metres per second.
On 13 June 2018, the 'Optical Navigation Camera - Telescopic' (ONC T) acquired an image of Ryugu, where the asteroid extends to 10 pixels. The short exposure time means that the background star field is invisible.
Earlier, the ONC-T also acquired an image with a much longer exposure time in which the background stars are visible.
Hayabusa2's Optical Navigation Camera (ONC) system consists of one telescopic camera (T) and two wide-angle cameras (W1 and W2). ONC T is a telescopic camera equipped with seven filters covering the visible and near-infrared parts of the spectrum.
More images will follow as the approach to asteroid Ryugu continues.
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