Japan's Hayabusa2 on homeward journey with main engines activated
Japan's space agency said Tuesday its Hayabusa2 probe is now homeward bound after activating its main engines following completion of its mission to collect samples from an asteroid. The probe is scheduled to travel around 800 million kilometers to deliver the samples from the Ryugu ...
Team of Japanese and South Korean researchers to observe asteroid using Hokkaido telescope
A team of Japanese and South Korean researchers will start observing the Ryugu asteroid using a special telescope in Hokkaido from next fall, in hopes of gaining an understanding of how asteroids are formed, a team member said Monday. Japan's Hayabusa2 probe recently completed a ...
NASA renames faraway ice world Arrokoth after backlash over Ultima Thule moniker
Ultima Thule, the farthest cosmic body ever visited by a spacecraft, has been officially renamed Arrokoth, or "sky" in the Native American Powhatan and Algonquian languages, following a significant backlash over the old name's Nazi connotations. The icy rock, which orbits in the dark and ...
Robotic explorer to orbit Ryugu asteroid in final mission for Japan's Hayabusa2
The Hayabusa2 on Thursday released a robotic explorer bound for the surface of an asteroid in the probe's final task before returning to earth, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said. The Minerva-II2, a small rover attached to Hayabusa2, began its descent toward the surface ...
Asteroid images from probe dropped off by Hayabusa offer clues on planet formation
Photographs snapped by a shoebox-sized probe that explored the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu offer new clues about its composition — insights that are expected to help scientists understand the formation of our solar system. The German-French Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) was dropped off by Japan's ...
“We’ve collected a part of the solar system’s history,” Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency project manager Yuichi Tsuda said at a jubilant news conference.
Scientists conclude cigar-shaped interstellar object isn't alien spaceship
After investigating the nature of a mysterious and apparently cigar-shaped object called 'Oumuamua spotted in 2017 speeding through our solar system, astronomers remain uncertain over how to classify it, but are confident it is not an alien spaceship. Its odd shape and motion had prompted ...
JAXA finds 10 more artificial craters made on Ryugu asteroid by Japan's Hayabusa2 probe
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said Thursday that 10 smaller, man-made craters had been found on an asteroid in addition to the larger crater its Hayabusa2 space probe produced last month as part of its mission to gain insight into the origin of life ...
Scientists ponder, what if an asteroid was about to hit Earth?
Here's a hypothetical: A telescope detects an asteroid between 100 and 300 meters in diameter racing through our solar system at 14 kilometers per second, 57 million kilometers from Earth. Astronomers estimate a 1 percent risk the space rock will collide with our planet on ...
Japan's Hayabusa2 probe succeeds in blasting out first man-made crater on an asteroid
Scientists have succeeded in creating what they called the first-ever artificial crater on an asteroid, a step toward shedding light on how the solar system evolved, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said Thursday. The announcement comes after the Hayabusa2 probe fired an explosive device April ...
China invites partners to load experiments onto planned probes for 10-year asteroid mission
China plans to launch an ambitious asteroid exploration mission and has invited collaborators to put their experiments on the probes, space agency officials said Thursday. The 10-year mission will involve a probe sent to a near-Earth asteroid to collect samples, said Liu Jizhong, head of ...
Japan's Hayabusa2 probe drops explosive payload and blasts crater in asteroid Ryugu
A Japanese probe on Friday successfully launched an explosive device at an asteroid to blast a crater in its surface, from which it is planned to scoop up material that could shed light on how the solar system evolved. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) ...
