A space probe performed a flyby of a near-Earth asteroid, in a test mission for technology that could help protect the planet from space rocks.
The fridge-sized Hayabusa2 was due yesterday to fly within 800m of asteroid Torifune, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) scientists said earlier, a trial run to see whether such a probe could deflect a potentially dangerous space rock away from Earth.
The mission comes after Nasa deliberately smashed a spacecraft into the 160m-wide Dimorphos asteroid in 2022, successfully altering its orbit around a larger space rock.
Moving at a speed of more than 18,000kph, Hayabusa2 was not intended to collide with Torifune.
Instead, scientists wanted to assess whether they could precisely control the trajectory of the probe, should it ever need to perform a deflection.
“At 6.35pm ... Hayabusa2 conducted a flyby of Torifune and the spacecraft is working normally,” said a Jaxa spokeswoman yesterday.
Online footage supplied by Jaxa showed scientists applauding in a control room.
If it is confirmed that the space probe indeed came within 800m of Torifune, the mission would be one of closest flybys of a near-Earth asteroid ever.
“It’s as difficult as trying to shoot through a one-yen coin somewhere within the area stretching from Okinawa to Hokkaido,” Yuya Mimasu of Jaxa said earlier, referring to Japan’s southernmost and northernmost islands.
Cameras on board Hayabusa2 are also recording data from the asteroid’s surface including geographical features, its texture and temperature – vital information for a potential planetary defence mission.
The space probe’s mission is not based on any actual threat to Earth from an asteroid.
Launched in 2014, Hayabusa2 has already thrilled scientists by landing on and gathering material from the asteroid Ryugu, some 300 million kilometres from our planet.
Six years later, it returned to Earth precious samples from Ryugu, providing scientists with clues about what the solar system was like at its birth some 4.6 billion years ago. — AFP
