JAXA’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft completes a flyby of asteroid Torifune, bringing the mission into a new phase after earlier work on asteroid Ryugu. During the Torifune encounter, the spacecraft approaches to within about 800 meters of the asteroid’s surface. Despite the high relative speed that makes navigation difficult, the mission team is able to capture clear images showing Torifune’s boulder-strewn terrain.
Scientists had previously expected Torifune to be a contact binary asteroid based on ground-based observations. The images returned during the flyby are reported to confirm that interpretation, indicating two components in contact rather than a single, smooth body.
In parallel, both outlets note that Hayabusa 2’s primary mission to rendezvous with Ryugu is already completed. The spacecraft reached Ryugu in June 2018, spent about 1.5 years studying it, and returned a collected sample to Earth in December 2020. The Torifune flyby therefore occurs after the main science and sample-return objectives have concluded.
