A Japanese spacecraft will reach out and touch a gem of an asteroid.
Asteroids come in all shapes and sizes. We’ve seen a die and a skull and now we can add a gemstone to the list. JAXA, Japan’s space agency, posted images of the asteroid Ryugu as seen by its fast-approaching Hayabasu2 spacecraft.
Hayabusa2 is the sequel to Japan’s original Hayabusa asteroid mission, which returned to Earth in 2010 after touching down on an asteroid named Itokawa. The probe successfully gathered sample particles from the asteroid and brought them back to Earth. The current mission will also try to gather and return samples from Ryugu.
Ryugu, also known as 1999 JU3, is classified as a near-Earth object (NEO) and a potentially hazardous asteroid thanks to its size and an orbital path that could bring it close to Earth.
JAXA’s asteroid hunter launched in late 2014 and has since traveled about 2 billion miles (3.
