Japan’s Hayabusa2 completes high-speed flyby of asteroid Torifune, releases new images

The Hayabusa2 spacecraft successfully flew past asteroid Torifune on July 5 at around 6:30 p.m. Japan Standard Time, the Japan Aerospace Agency (JAXA) confirmed. Traveling at a relative speed of approximately 5 kilometers per second (11,184 miles per hour), Hayabusa2 flew within about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) of the asteroid and also snapped new images of the object.

An Apollo group asteroid traveling through space some 62 million miles away, Torifune orbits the Sun every 383 days and rotates every 5 hours. While the rock is estimated to be about 450 meters wide, there was considerable uncertainty regarding its dimensions, which was one of the reasons why Patrick Michel, who is part of the Hayabusa2 science team, described the mission as "risky." What's more, flying past Torifune wasn't even Hayabusa2's original mission. The probe was launched back in December 2014 to explore asteroid Ryugu, the samples of which it delivered to Earth in December 2020 before being sent on an extended mission.

During the flyby, the spacecraft snapped new images of Torifune using its optical and mid-infrared cameras and transmitted them back to Earth. The mid-infrared image shows that Torifune is much cooler in what looks like the shadowed region in the optical image and much warmer on its Sun-facing side. JAXA said that the rest of the scientific data captured by the probe will reach Earth at a later date. 

For JAXA, this mission is about more than just studying an asteroid. The agency hopes that these precise flybys will eventually help it develop the technology needed to change the path of an asteroid that's on a collision course with Earth as part of its long-term planetary defense efforts.

Where is Hayabusa2 headed next?

Hayabusa2 is now headed toward asteroid 1998 KY26, a much smaller space rock that's only about 36 feet (11 meters) across. If everything goes according to plan, it'll arrive in 2031 and become the first spacecraft ever to visit an asteroid that small. Once it gets there, Hayabusa2 will orbit the asteroid before attempting a touchdown on its surface.

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