Hayabusa2 makes closest asteroid flyby, JAXA says

Japan's Hayabusa2 probe flew 400 metres from the near-Earth asteroid Torifune on July 5 in what Japan's space agency said was the closest recorded asteroid flyby mission.

The fridge-sized probe passed 400 metres from the asteroid's surface and 744 metres from its centre while moving at more than 18,000 kilometres per hour, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said. JAXA said the result beat its projection of about 800 metres from Torifune's centre.

JAXA scientist Yuya Mimasu told reporters that, compared with space probes around the world that had carried out flyby missions, Hayabusa2 passed closest to an asteroid. The Nikkei business daily said the previous record was set by a Chinese probe that flew within 770 metres of an asteroid's surface.

JAXA released black-and-white images showing Torifune as two round objects joined together, resembling a snowman. The asteroid had been known to have an elongated shape, but its details were previously unknown.

The flyby followed NASA's 2022 test that changed the orbit of the asteroid Dimorphos by deliberately striking it with a spacecraft. JAXA and the European Space Agency are also working on a planetary defence mission to explore the asteroid Apophis, which will pass close to Earth in April 2029.

Hayabusa2 was launched in 2014 and previously landed on the asteroid Ryugu before returning samples to Earth six years later. After the Torifune mission, the probe is expected to attempt a rendezvous with the asteroid 1998KY26 in 2031.