{"id":534454,"date":"2026-07-05T16:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T16:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/534454\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T16:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T16:42:09","slug":"japanese-space-probe-size-of-a-fridge-flies-near-asteroid-in-planet-defence-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/534454\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese space probe, size of a fridge, flies near asteroid in planet defence test"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">A Japanese space probe performed a fly-by of a near-Earth asteroid on Sunday, in a test mission for technology that could help protect the planet from space rocks.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The fridge-sized Hayabusa2 was due to fly within 800 metres (0.5 miles) 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.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The mission comes after Nasa deliberately smashed a spacecraft into the 160-metre-wide Dimorphos asteroid in 2022, successfully altering its orbit around a larger space rock.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Moving at a speed of more than 18,000 kilometres (11,185 miles) per hour, Hayabusa2 was not intended to collide with Torifune.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Instead, scientists wanted to assess whether they could precisely control the trajectory of the probe, should it ever need to perform a deflection.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"An image taken by a Japanese moon vehicle on the moon in 2024. Now the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has successfully flown a probe near an asteroid. Photo: via AP\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/3622c438-c52d-475e-a0e3-28244cf744ab_b081754a.jpg\" title=\"An image taken by a Japanese moon vehicle on the moon in 2024. Now the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has successfully flown a probe near an asteroid. Photo: via AP\"\/>An image taken by a Japanese moon vehicle on the moon in 2024. Now the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has successfully flown a probe near an asteroid. Photo: via AP<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cAt 6.35pm (0935 GMT) \u2026 Hayabusa2 conducted a fly-by of Torifune and the spacecraft is working normally,\u201d a JAXA spokeswoman said, declining to give her name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Japanese space probe performed a fly-by of a near-Earth asteroid on Sunday, in a test mission for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[4483,3224,13309,88775,71563,61,60,70162,20168,91,77639,227245,13579,82,3630,227244,227246,227247],"class_list":["post-534454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-dimorphos","tag-earth","tag-european-space-agency","tag-hayabusa","tag-hokkaido","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-japan-aerospace-exploration-agency","tag-japanese","tag-nasa","tag-okinawa","tag-patrick-michel","tag-ryugu","tag-science","tag-solar-system","tag-space-rock","tag-torifune","tag-yuya-mimasu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}