On December 6, 2020, the Hayabusa2 spacecraft dropped off pristine samples from asteroid Ryugu in the Australian outback, becoming the world\u2019s second asteroid sample return mission, after the first Hayabusa mission returned dusty samples from asteroid Itokawa in 2010. But Hayabusa2 still has more to offer.<\/p>\n
That same spacecraft is currently on its way to another distant space rock, aiming to snag more samples to help scientists compile the solar system\u2019s origin story. Recent observations of the asteroid, however, reveal that Hayabusa2 might not be able to touch down on its new target.<\/p>\n
Asteroid 1998 KY26 is a small, lumpy near-Earth object thought to contain about a million gallons of water. It rotates so quickly that a day on the rock ends almost as soon as it begins, according to NASA<\/a>. Hayabusa2 is set to rendezvous with the asteroid in 2031 as part of its extended mission to collect more dust and rock straight from the source.<\/p>\n Now, using multiple observatories around the world, astronomers gathered more data on Hayabusa2\u2019s new target and found that it is nearly three times smaller and spinning much faster than originally thought, according to a new paper<\/a> published in Nature Communications.<\/p>\n Not clear for landing <\/p>\n The researchers behind the new paper combined the recent observations with previous radar data, revealing that the asteroid is a mere 36 feet (11 meters) wide, as opposed to 98 feet (30 meters). What\u2019s more, the asteroid is spinning about twice as fast as earlier data suggested.<\/p>\n \u201cWe found that the reality of the object is completely different from what it was previously described as,\u201d Toni Santana-Ros, a researcher from the University of Alicante, Spain, and lead author of the new paper, said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cOne day on this asteroid lasts only five minutes!\u201d<\/p>\n