JpGU-AGU Joint Meeting 2026

convener:Koji Wada(Planetary Exploration Research Center, Chiba Institute of Technology), Yuta Shimizu(University of Tokyo), Patrick Michel(Universite Cote D Azur Observatoire De La Cote D Azur CNRS Laboratoire Lagrange), Kevin J Walsh(Southwest Research Institute Boulder), Akiko Nakamura(Graduate School of Science, Kobe University)

Recent planetary explorations have revealed that almost all solid bodies in the solar system are covered with small particles, called regolith. The surface geology, especially regolith behavior on the surfaces of solid bodies, becomes increasingly more important as represented by the exploration and sample-return missions such as Hayabusa, Hayabusa2, OSIRIS-Rex, and MMX. For fully understanding the regolith science, it is required to know and compare the regolith conditions on various celestial bodies, from asteroids to planets, with various methods. Therefore, this session welcomes broad topics related to regolith on various celestial bodies, such as asteroids, comets, the Moon, the Martian moons, Mars, etc. Papers on the formation, evolution, and alteration processes of regolith particles and regolith systems on the surface of planetary bodies, remote and in-situ observational results and techniques, analyses and results of returned samples, and laboratory, numerical, and theoretical studies on the fundamental physical and chemical processes are all welcome. Note that what we call regolith is not just fine grains: all kinds of materials (more or less loose) that lie on the surface, from cobbles to finer grains, are our targets.