On July 5, 2026, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) achieved a significant milestone as its Hayabusa2 spacecraft completed the first asteroid encounter of its extended mission, closely passing by a unique two-lobed asteroid near Earth. This flyby involved capturing both visual and thermal images, showcasing the features of the asteroid Torifune.
Close-up image of the near-Earth asteroid Tryphne, captured on July 5, 2026, by JAXA’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft. Image credit: JAXA / University of Tokyo / Chiba Institute of Technology.
Launched in 2014, Hayabusa2 was originally designed by JAXA to explore the carbon-rich near-Earth asteroid Ryugu, believed to contain primordial materials from the formation of our solar system.
Upon arriving at Ryugu in 2018, Hayabusa2 dedicated over a year to mapping the asteroid and deployed a small, “hopping” spacecraft along with the German-designed MASCOT lander for sampling operations.
In April 2019, the spacecraft performed a groundbreaking maneuver by firing a copper projectile at Ryugu to create an artificial crater, allowing scientists to gather untouched samples that had been shielded from billions of years of space weathering.
Afterwards, Hayabusa2 successfully descended to collect material from the newly formed crater.
When the return capsule landed in Australia in 2020, laboratory analyses revealed that the samples from Ryugu contained water-bearing minerals, organic molecules, and other essential compounds that provide insights into the early chemistry of our solar system, formed around 4.6 billion years ago.
Unlike many space missions that conclude after their primary objectives, Hayabusa2 has continued its journey.
After delivering the sample capsule, the spacecraft reignited its engines, embarking on a long-term mission to approach another near-Earth asteroid, 1998 KY26, in 2031.
In the interim, Hayabusa2 scheduled a high-speed flyby of the small asteroid Tryphne (also known as 2001 CC21) for 2026.
Thermal image of the near-Earth asteroid Torifune taken on July 5, 2026, by JAXA’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft. Source: JAXA / Maebashi Institute of Technology.
The flyby event occurred at 6:30 PM on July 5, Japan time, with Hayabusa2 traveling at an impressive speed of about 5 kilometers per second.
The spacecraft utilized its Optical Navigation Camera (ONC-T) to capture visible-light images, revealing Torifune’s distinctive snowman-like shape, characterized by its two elongated lobes.
Mission team members stated, “Observations were conducted using NIRS3 (near-infrared spectrometer), TIR (thermal infrared imager), and LIDAR (light detection and ranging) instruments approximately one hour prior to the closest approach.”
These observations continued right until just before the closest approach to the asteroid, although none were recorded after the spacecraft passed Torifune.
“Currently, only a portion of the data gathered by the scientific instruments has been transmitted back to Earth,” they added.
“The remaining data will continue to be sent during future operations.”
Source: www.sci.news