Dr Brian May, astrophysicist and guitarist for the British rock band Queen, has sent us a new 3D image of asteroid Ryugu, and a video message for the Hayabusa2 team! During the Hayabusa2 mission, Brian May has developed a number of 3D images of asteroid Ryugu and took the time to send messages of encouragement to the Project. Thank you so much!

    Here are some of the previous articles about Brian May:
    https://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/topics/20180704je/index_e.html
    https://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/topics/20180731e/index.html
    https://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/news/message/ForFirstTouchdown.html
    https://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/topics/20190710e_Stereo_DrMay/
    https://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/topics/20190710e_Message_DrMay/
    https://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/topics/20200203_mtgDrMay/
    https://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/topics/20210402_DrBrianMay/ (in Japanese)

This new 3D image of Ryugu is shown in Figure 1. The top and bottom of Ryugu are inverted compared to how we usually show the asteroid, and this photo has Ryugu’s south pole at the image top. The Otohime Saxum, which is a large boulder, is clearly visible. The stereoscopic view of the asteroid makes the topology of Ryugu’s southern region extremely clear.

Figure 1: Stereoscopic image of asteroid Ryugu by Brian May. A stereoscopic view is possible with the parallel method, where the right eye sees the right-side image, and the left eye sees the left-side image.
(Original image credit: JAXA, University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, University of Aizu, AIST. / Stereoscopic credit: Claudia Manzoni, Brian May.)

If you stare at the image in Figure 1 with both eyes, you can make it stand out in three dimensions. However, if this is difficult, it might be easier to achieve if you put a paper partition between the left and right images. The image is most easily seen if you have a specialized viewer for stereoscopic images, but as this is hard to find, Figure 2 shows the same images as in Figure 1, but processed for red/blue glasses. If you look at Figure 2 through commercially available red/blue glasses, you should see it in three dimensions. Alternatively, you can achieve the same effect by using red and blue cellophane and placing the blue cellophane over your right eye, and red over your left. This image composition for red/blue glasses was created by Koki Yumoto (Graduate student in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tokyo) of the Hayabusa2 Optical Navigation Camera (ONC) Team.

Figure 2: A composite image of Figure 1 for red/blue glasses.
(Original image credit: JAXA, University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, University of Aizu, AIST. / Stereoscopic credit: Claudia Manzoni, Brian May. / Composition for red/blue glasses: Koki Yumoto.)

Along with this image, Dr Brian May also sent a video message for the ONC team.