The 1998 KY26 asteroid, the destination of Japan's Hayabusa2 unmanned probe in its ongoing space mission, may be far smaller than researchers had estimated.
In December 2020, Hayabusa2 dropped on Earth a capsule containing sand and other samples collected from the asteroid Ryugu.
Since then, Hayabusa2 has continued its flight on an extended mission in which it is scheduled to conduct a flyby observation of the asteroid Torifune in July 2026 and reach the 1998 KY26 asteroid in July 2031. 1998 KY26 is one of the smaller asteroids that could collide with Earth.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.