Like the needle in a haystack: Hayabusa2 wants to land at an asteroid 10 meters to 6 million km

It moves faster than we thought and is extremely small: this asteroid is a true aim of aiming (and astrophysics at its best).

The Hayabusa2 probe is currently going to an asteroid so small that it has practically its own size: It does not reach 11 meters wide.

In fact, the asteroid 1998 KY26 It’s much smaller and runs much faster than scientists thought-it became a real challenge.

“We found that The reality of the object is completely different of what had been previously described, ”said Toni Santana-Ros, author of the Nature This month.

“Smaller size and fastest rotation now measured will make Hayabusa2 visit even more interesting but also more challenging,” said Olivier Hainaut of the Southern European Observatory (ESO), quoted by.

The asteroid is Ternue, so the team programmed the campaign for a favorable and nearby passage. According to scientists, landing may be possible through the use of a “Kiss” style maneuver If navigation and time are adjusted.

Even without landing, a nearby escort would already provide the first direct observation of a decaming scale asteroid, which would already be a valuable result, emphasizes Earth.

And this mission can be relevant for future investigations: It builds tools that we can use in the next small and fast object that astronomers discover “passing”.