Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Hayabusa2 spacecraft is set to return to Earth on December 6, 2020, after a yearlong journey to collect soil samples of asteroid Ryugu. These valuable samples could provide scientists with more clues to the origins of…
Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa-2 has reported new observations of Ryugu, revealing more secrets about the object's remarkable history– particularly signs of a close encounter with the Sun. Hayabusa-2 launched in December 2014 and reached Ryugu in 2018. In…
Analysis of the impact craters on the asteroid Ryugu using Hayabusa 2's remote sensing image data has revealed the geological history of the near-Earth object. The research team, led by assistant professor Naoyuki Hirata of the Department of Planetology at Kobe…
JAXA's Hayabusa2 spacecraft has released MINERVA-II2 with its last rover toward asteroid Ryugu on Thursday, October 3, 2019. The rover is expected to land by October 8 as part of its final mission before returning to Earth, according to Japan Aerospace…
The unmanned Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2 has arrived at asteroid Ryugu, currently located 284 million km (176 million miles) away from Earth. The spacecraft will attempt 3 brief touch-and-go landings over the next 18 months to collect samples and return them to…
