A small asteroid named 2022 OB5 has revealed an unexpected obstacle for asteroid miners: it rotates once every 1.542 minutes, making it one of the fastest-spinning small asteroids ever measured. According to a study published in Icarus, this extreme rotation highlights a growing gap between celestial objects that are theoretically accessible and those that are practically exploitable. For companies aiming to harvest metals from space, the findings underscore just how complex asteroid mining can be.<\/p>\n
The Mission That Almost Reached The Asteroid<\/p>\n
AstroForge, a leading private space mining company, selected 2022 OB5 for its Odin Mission, a 100 kg satellite intended to assess the asteroid\u2019s metallic content. Launched aboard a Falcon 9 in February 2025, Odin quickly ran into trouble. After weeks of attempts to establish communication, AstroForge declared the mission lost, suspecting the spacecraft was tumbling uncontrollably somewhere in interplanetary space. Despite this setback, the allure of 2022 OB5 persisted, mainly due to its low delta-v, a measure of the energy required to reach it, and its potential as a metal-rich target.<\/p>\n
Uncovering The Asteroid\u2019s Rapid Spin<\/p>\n
Researchers turned to the HiPERCAM instrument at the Gran Telescopio Canarias in La Palma, Spain, to study 2022 OB5 remotely. HiPERCAM\u2019s ability to capture simultaneous images across five optical bands allowed scientists to avoid biases caused by the asteroid\u2019s rapid rotation. Observations confirmed that 2022 OB5 completes a rotation every 1.542 minutes, classifying it as an ultra-fast rotator. The results indicate that any spacecraft attempting to land or extract material would face centrifugal forces nearly 100 times stronger than the asteroid\u2019s gravity, effectively flinging loose material and making conventional mining extremely hazardous.<\/p>\n
![\"1](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1-s2.0-S0019103526002198-gr1.jpg.webp\")
Corrected instrumental magnitude mrel,\u2217m_{\\text{rel},*}mrel,\u2217\u200b versus SDSS magnitude for field stars in the reference frame, for the gsg_sgs\u200b, rsr_srs\u200b, isi_sis\u200b and zsz_szs\u200b HiPERCAM bands. The solid line in each panel shows the best-fit calibration relation, with the derived effective zero-point ZPeffZP_{\\text{eff}}ZPeff\u200b indicated.
Credit: Icarus<\/p>\n
Challenges For Asteroid Mining Companies<\/p>\n
The fast rotation of 2022 OB5 presents a significant engineering challenge. Traditional landing or anchoring systems could fail, similar to what occurred with Rosetta\u2019s Philae Lander on comet 67P\/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014, which bounced multiple times due to anchoring issues. Companies like AstroForge now must develop advanced station-keeping technologies or reconsider which asteroids are viable for extraction. Missions such as Deepspace-2, planned to target metallic asteroids later this year, are likely to incorporate these lessons, emphasizing precision and safety in future operations.<\/p>\n
![\"1](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1-s2.0-S0019103526002198-gr2.jpg.webp\")
Generalised Lomb\u2013Scargle periodogram of the rsr_srs\u200b differential light curve of 2022 OB5. The dominant peak at Prot=1.542\u00b10.001P_{\\text{rot}} = 1.542 \\pm 0.001Prot\u200b=1.542\u00b10.001 min (blue marker) corresponds to the best-fit rotation period. The remaining peaks at 0.5Prot0.5 P_{\\text{rot}}0.5Prot\u200b, 1.5Prot1.5 P_{\\text{rot}}1.5Prot\u200b, and 2Prot2 P_{\\text{rot}}2Prot\u200b are aliases arising from the non-sinusoidal shape of the light curve in combination with the multi-term Fourier model.
Credit: Icarus<\/p>\n
Potential Value And Composition<\/p>\n
![\"1](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1-s2.0-S0019103526002198-gr3.jpg.webp\")
Phase-folded light curves of 2022 OB5 obtained simultaneously in the five HiPERCAM bands (us,gs,rs,is,zsu_s, g_s, r_s, i_s, z_sus\u200b,gs\u200b,rs\u200b,is\u200b,zs\u200b), displayed from top to bottom in order of increasing wavelength and offset vertically for clarity. The solid lines show the best-fit fourth-order Fourier model derived from the rsr_srs\u200b band and applied to the remaining bands. The sparse coverage near the primary minimum in the usu_sus\u200b band reflects the low signal-to-noise ratio of this filter, where the flux of the target cannot be reliably measured at the faintest phases. The bottom panel shows the residuals with respect to the model for all five bands. The rotation period is Prot=1.542\u00b10.001P_{\\text{rot}} = 1.542 \\pm 0.001Prot\u200b=1.542\u00b10.001 min. The phase is computed using the reference epoch t0=61054.9568023t_0 = 61054.9568023t0\u200b=61054.9568023 MJD.