Japan’s Hayabusa2 Successfully Observes Asteroid Torifune

Tokyo, July 5 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s Hayabusa2 unmanned probe successfully flew past the asteroid Torifune at close range on Sunday, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said. The probe is in normal condition, JAXA said. According to the plan, Hayabusa2 passed about 800 meters from the center of Torifune at around 6:30 p.m. Japan time to take pictures of its surface and observe it with an infrared camera and a spectrometer. Torifune is located about 100 million kilometers from Earth. JAXA will hold a press conference on Monday afternoon after confirming the actual distance and whether the observation was successful. At JAXA’s control room in Sagamihara in Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, members of the operations team closely monitored the data transmitted from Hayabusa2 with a delay of about five minutes. After confirming the mission’s success, they celebrated by clapping and hugging one another. Hayabusa2, launched in 2014, collected sand and other materials from the asteroid Ryugu and dropped a capsule containing the samples back to Earth in December 2020. Since then, it has been on an extended mission to reach a new target, the asteroid 1998 KY26, in July 2031. Torifune is a rocky asteroid similar to Itokawa, the asteroid from which the first Hayabusa probe brought back samples. It is estimated to be about 800 meters long. Two hours before the closest approach, Hayabusa2 autonomously adjusted its trajectory based on camera images and other information and made the close flyby while avoiding a collision. Hayabusa2 passed the asteroid at a relative speed of 5 kilometers per second, about five times the speed of a rifle bullet. The observation results will provide clues to the history of the solar system, such as the origin of asteroids. In addition, the demonstration of high-precision control technology that allows the probe to pass within hundreds of meters of the asteroid’s surface is expected to be useful for planetary defense, which aims to protect Earth from asteroids that could collide with it. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]