The Japanese probe Hayabusa2 continues to explore space. Recently, the space agency JAXA published a photo of the asteroid Torifune, past which the spacecraft flew. The asteroid turned out to look remarkably like a snowman made of two lumps stuck together.
A “Space Snowman”
On Sunday, the refrigerator-sized Hayabusa2 spacecraft flew past the near-Earth asteroid Torifune as part of a mission that demonstrated the possibility of diverting a potentially hazardous space rock away from Earth. This was reported by phys.org.
The new image, released on Monday by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), may contribute to such efforts, since, according to researchers, near-Earth asteroids differ in size, shape, and surface characteristics.
“When I first saw this image and the scientific data, I really got goosebumps,” JAXA scientist Yuya Mimasu told reporters, adding that the asteroid “personally reminded me of a snowman.” The black-and-white image, taken with a telescopic camera, showed two connected round objects. “The image really shows rocks… I truly did not expect that I would be able to take such a photo, so I am simply over the moon,” he said.
Close Flyby of the Asteroid
This mission is a continuation of NASA’s successful 2022 experiment, during which the orbit of the asteroid Dimorphos was changed by deliberately crashing a spacecraft into it. Torifune was known to have an elongated shape, but the details of its structure remained unknown.
Moving at a speed of more than 18,000 kilometers, or 11,185 miles, per hour, the probe was expected to pass no more than 800 meters, or 2,625 feet, from the asteroid, but JAXA said it would analyze that distance later.
If confirmed, this mission will become one of the closest flybys of a near-Earth asteroid in history.
JAXA also reported on Monday that it had successfully obtained data from three other instruments, which can measure the distance to the asteroid and check for the presence of water.
Achievements of the Hayabusa2 Mission and Further Research
JAXA and the European Space Agency have joined forces in another so-called “planetary defense” mission aimed at studying the asteroid Apophis, which will pass near Earth in April 2029.
Launched in 2014, Hayabusa2 has already impressed scientists by landing on the asteroid Ryugu, located about 300 million kilometers, or 185 million miles, from our planet, and collecting samples from it.
Six years later, it delivered valuable samples from Ryugu — which means “dragon palace” in Japanese — back to Earth, giving scientists clues about what the Solar System was like at the time of its birth about 4.6 billion years ago.
After completing the Torifune mission, the space probe is expected in 2031 to carry out a “rendezvous” — a maneuver in which it flies close to an asteroid or lands on it in order to collect detailed data — with a tiny near-Earthasteroid called 1998 KY26.
