Tag: Hayabusa2
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Japan’s Veteran Hayabusa2 Enters Planetary Defense Role With Asteroid Flyby
Hayabusa2 finished its primary mission in 2020, when it returned samples from the asteroid Ryugu to Earth. Rather than retiring the spacecraft after that success, Japan has directed it toward a new objective focused on asteroid threat assessment. The July 5 flyby targeted a near-Earth asteroid whose name was not specified in available information. The…
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Hayabusa2 Targets July 5 Flyby of Asteroid Torifune in One of the Closest Encounters Ever Attempted
Hayabusa2 launched in December 2014 and rendezvoused with Ryugu four years later, collecting samples and returning them to Earth in 2020 to complete its primary objectives. Despite briefly entering a protective safe mode last year, the spacecraft has continued operating well and now pursues new science targets as part of its extended mission. Satoshi Tanaka…
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Hayabusa2 samples reveal the effects of space weathering on asteroid Ryugu
Using samples collected by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) asteroid explorer Hayabusa2, scientists have found the effects of micrometeoroid bombardments on asteroid 162173 Ryugu. The team used a technique called electron holography to study the sample’s magnetic properties, to learn about the magnetic field in the early solar system, and how space weathering affected the…
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JAXA’s Hayabusa2 asteroid sample return capsule lands in Australia
Hayabusa2’s sample return capsule has landed in Woomera, Australia, today, 5 December — or 6 December local time at Woomera. The exact landing location is now being determined, but a tweet from the mission’s official account says an estimated location of landing has been identified and teams are en route to recover it. The craft…
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Hayabusa2 continues to achieve milestones at Asteroid Ryugu
The Japanese asteroid sampling mission Hayabusa2 – launched on December 3, 2014 aboard an H-IIA rocket from Tanegashima, Japan – completed its long flight to asteroid Ryugu (formerly 1999 JU3) before – on September 21, 2018 – achieving the milestone of deploying its two tiny MINERVA-II robots/rovers, followed later by the deployment of the MASCOT…