Hayabusa2’s 2031 Touchdown Plan Faces an Surprising Asteroid Nightmare

On December 6, 2020, the Hayabusa2 spacecraft dropped off pristine samples from asteroid Ryugu within the Australian outback, changing into the world’s second asteroid pattern return mission, after the primary Hayabusa mission returned dusty samples from asteroid Itokawa in 2010. However Hayabusa2 nonetheless has extra to supply.

That very same spacecraft is presently on its approach to one other distant area rock, aiming to snag extra samples to assist scientists compile the photo voltaic system’s origin story. Latest observations of the asteroid, nonetheless, reveal that Hayabusa2 won’t be capable to contact down on its new goal.

Asteroid 1998 KY26 is a small, lumpy near-Earth object thought to include about 1,000,000 gallons of water. It rotates so shortly {that a} day on the rock ends nearly as quickly because it begins, in response to NASA. Hayabusa2 is ready to rendezvous with the asteroid in 2031 as a part of its prolonged mission to gather extra mud and rock straight from the supply.

Now, utilizing a number of observatories all over the world, astronomers gathered extra knowledge on Hayabusa2’s new goal and located that it’s practically thrice smaller and spinning a lot quicker than initially thought, in response to a brand new paper revealed in Nature Communications.

Not clear for touchdown

The researchers behind the brand new paper mixed the latest observations with earlier radar knowledge, revealing that the asteroid is a mere 36 toes (11 meters) extensive, versus 98 toes (30 meters). What’s extra, the asteroid is spinning about twice as quick as earlier knowledge instructed.

“We discovered that the fact of the thing is totally totally different from what it was beforehand described as,” Toni Santana-Ros, a researcher from the College of Alicante, Spain, and lead writer of the brand new paper, mentioned in a statement. “Sooner or later on this asteroid lasts solely 5 minutes!”

Hayabusa2’s first goal measured at practically 3,000 toes (900 meters) extensive. The spacecraft landed on asteroid Ryugu on February 22, 2019, for the primary time, then returned for a second landing in July 2019 to gather subsurface samples from a crater it had created with its first touchdown. Shortly earlier than dropping off its samples on Earth, Japan’s area company (JAXA) introduced an extension to Hayabusa2’s mission and a fortunate second goal.

An even bigger problem awaits

In contrast to its first goal, nonetheless, Hayabusa2’s second touchdown will show far more difficult because of the asteroid’s small dimension and quick rotation. The workforce behind the brand new examine used the European Southern Observatory’s Very Giant Telescope and different devices to look at 1998 KY26 in preparation for the mission’s upcoming encounter.

“The wonderful story right here is that we discovered that the dimensions of the asteroid is akin to the dimensions of the spacecraft that’s going to go to it! And we had been in a position to characterize such a small object utilizing our telescopes, which implies that we are able to do it for different objects sooner or later,” Santana-Ros mentioned. “Our strategies may have an effect on the plans for future near-Earth asteroid exploration and even asteroid mining.”

This has the makings of a really fascinating rendezvous! Now we simply have to attend—impatiently—for 2031 to reach.