BA🔬 Science20 hr. ago☆Follow⤓CiteShare

The Hayabusa2 probe has captured a picture of a two-headed asteroid

On Sunday (July 5), Japan's space agency JAXA's Hayabusa2 probe conducted a close flyby of the asteroid Torifune, which has a diameter of 450 meters and is currently traveling through space approximately 100 million kilometers from Earth. This was expected to be one of the closest high-speed flybys of an asteroid by any spacecraft ever conducted. During the flyby, Hayabusa2 captured a new image of Torifune using its optical camera and successfully transmitted the image to JAXA controllers. The probe also collected additional scientific data about the asteroid, though these results will be sent back to Earth later. Hayabusa2 used its TIR camera (Mid-Infrared Camera) to capture images of Torifune, allowing scientists to measure the asteroid's surface temperature, thermal inertia, and surface roughness. These images reveal that parts of Torifune that appear shadowed in optical images are much colder, while areas facing the Sun are significantly warmer. Torifune orbits the Sun every 383 days and rotates every five hours. It belongs to the Apollo group, classified as near-Earth asteroids whose orbits intersect Earth's orbit as they move around the Sun. The flyby of Hayabusa2 past Torifu