{"id":54046,"date":"2026-07-06T17:56:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T17:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/54046\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T17:56:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T17:56:19","slug":"japans-hayabusa2-probe-captures-remarkable-photo-of-a-two-headed-asteroid-62-million-miles-away-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/54046\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan’s Hayabusa2 probe captures remarkable photo of a two-headed asteroid 62 million miles away"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Asteroid Torifune as seen by the Hayabusa2 probe’s Optical navigation camera (telephoto) (ONC-T) on July 5, 2026. | Credit: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)<\/p>\n

A Japanese spacecraft has gotten up close and personal with yet another asteroid, beaming home stunning new imagery of the distant space rock.<\/p>\n

On Sunday (July 5), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)’s Hayabusa2 probe<\/a> performed a close flyby of asteroid<\/a> Torifune, a 1,475-foot (450-meter) space rock currently traveling through space some 62 million miles (100 million kilometers) from Earth. It was expected to be one of the closest-ever high-speed passes a spacecraft has had with an asteroid.<\/p>\n

During the flyby, Hayabusa2 captured this breathtaking new image of Torifune using its optical camera, and was able to transmit it back to JAXA controllers. The probe captured additional scientific data about the asteroid, but will beam those results home at a later date, according to JAXA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hayabusa2 also imaged asteroid Torifune using its Mid-Infrared Camera (TIR), which allows scientists to measure asteroids’ surface temperatures, thermal inertia and surface roughness, according to JAXA. This mid-infrared image reveals Torifune to be much cooler in what appear to be shadowed regions seen in the optical image, and much warmer where the surface faces the sun.<\/p>\n

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Asteroid Torifune as seen by the Hayabusa2 probe’s Mid-Infrared Camera (TIR) on July 5, 2026. | Credit: JAXA<\/p>\n

Torifune orbits the sun every 383 days and rotates every 5 hours. It belongs to the Apollo group, a classification of near-Earth asteroids whose orbits cross Earth’s as they make their way around the sun<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hayabusa2’s flyby of Torifune was not part of its original mission, and one of the members of the probe’s scientific team previously told Space.com<\/a> the flyby was a “risky operation” due to the unknowns surrounding the asteroid.<\/p>\n

These new images add to the growing list of incredible accomplishments the Hayabusa2 probe has notched on its now nearly 12-year mission.<\/p>\n

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Asteroid Ryugu, also seen by JAXA’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft. | Credit: JAXA, University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, University of Aizu and AIST.<\/p>\n

Hayabusa2 launched in December 2014<\/a> on an ambitious mission to collect asteroid samples and return them back to Earth. The probe did just that in December 2020 when JAXA successfully landed samples of asteroid Ryugu<\/a> in the Australian desert.<\/p>\n

Since then, scientists have used the samples to peer back in cosmic time at the history of our solar system<\/a> and have even discovered that Ryugu contains all five nucleobases<\/a> found within DNA and RNA.<\/p>\n

After collecting its precious samples, Hayabusa2 left Ryugu in 2019. It’s ultimate goal is now to flyby asteroid 1998 KY26, which could become the smallest asteroid ever visited by a spacecraft<\/a>. 1998 KY26 is just 36 feet (11 meters) across, close to the size of the asteroid that exploded above Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2013<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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A size comparison between asteroid Ryugu, which was visited by Hayabusa2 in 2020, and its next target, 1998 KY26. | Credit: ESO\/M. Kornmesser. Asteroid models: T. Santana-Ros, JAXA\/University of Aizu\/Kobe University<\/p>\n

Hayabusa2 is expected to reach 1998 KY26 in the year 2031. Once there, the probe will orbit the space rock before attempting to touch down on its surface. JAXA hopes the mission will help scientists more about the structure and composition of small asteroids.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Asteroid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[21838,25962,35966,8,7201,1878],"class_list":["post-54046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-asteroid","tag-asteroid-ryugu","tag-asteroid-torifune","tag-japan","tag-japan-aerospace-exploration-agency","tag-jaxa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}