Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
scitechdaily.com/mission-impossible-asteroid-the-size-of-a-house-poses-new-challenge-for-hayabusa2
This animation shows the touchdown manoeuvre that Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft is likely to perform when it reaches its target in 2031, in a brief encounter with the asteroid 1998 KY26. Now that a new study has shown that this asteroid is roughly three times smaller than previously expected, and spinning twice as fast, this procedure may be more difficult to conduct.
Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser. Asteroid: T. Santana-Ros et al. Hayabusa2 model: SuperTKG (CC-BY-SA)
scitechdaily.com/mission-impossible-asteroid-the-size-of-a-house-poses-new-challenge-for-hayabusa2
This animation shows the touchdown manoeuvre that Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft is likely to perform when it reaches its target in 2031, in a brief encounter with the asteroid 1998 KY26. Now that a new study has shown that this asteroid is roughly three times smaller than previously expected, and spinning twice as fast, this procedure may be more difficult to conduct.
Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser. Asteroid: T. Santana-Ros et al. Hayabusa2 model: SuperTKG (CC-BY-SA)
