Hayabusa2 aimed to fly previous Torifune as close as possible without colliding, and it got here as shut as 800 meters (0.5 miles) from the asteroid’s heart. Due to Torifune’s small measurement and low reflectivity, Hayabusa2 wasn’t in a position to plot its actual trajectory previous the asteroid till just a few days earlier than the flyby, requiring last-minute navigational changes. JAXA noticed the flyby as a chance to check the form of orbital maneuvering that might be obligatory for a deliberate collision with an asteroid, also called the kinetic impactor technique of asteroid deflection. This added to Hayabusa2’s worth to planetary protection efforts, together with the mission’s research of its asteroid targets themselves.
What’s subsequent for Hayabusa2?
The mission’s last goal is to conduct an in depth flyby of the asteroid 1998 KY26.
At simply 11 meters (36 toes) in diameter, 1998 KY26 can be the smallest asteroid visited up-close by a spacecraft. Hayabusa2 is anticipated to achieve this last goal in 2031, when it is going to enter into orbit across the asteroid and try and land on its floor. This might be difficult attributable to KY26’s small measurement and very speedy rotation.
This last goal will even serve humanity’s efforts to defend our planet from impacts. 1998 KY26 is about half the scale of the asteroid that exploded above Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2013. Asteroids of this measurement collide with Earth as soon as each 10 to 100 years or so, on common, and might trigger important injury, however are too small to be simply noticed by ground-based telescopes. Missions like Hayabusa2 can yield necessary discoveries about these doubtlessly harmful little area rocks.
