On July 5, Hayabusa2 passed 800 meters from asteroid Torifune at 5 km/s, its first major win since 2020. A look at why Japan keeps flying a retired probe, the road to 1998 KY26, and how it compares to NASA's OSIRIS-APEX.
Kyoto and Hiroshima University researchers found that grains Hayabusa2 brought back from asteroid Ryugu begin altering within weeks on Earth. Here is how the decay starts with an iron sulfide, what it means for Bennu and Phobos samples, and how Japan is reacting.
On July 5, 2026, at around 6:30 p.m. Japan time, JAXA's Hayabusa2 will pass about 1 km from asteroid Torifune at roughly 5 km per second — crossing the 500-meter body in just 0.1 seconds. Here's why this ultra-fast flyby is so hard, how a body-fixed camera will catch it, and why it matters for planetary defense after NASA's DART.