Close encounter.
That is exactly what JAXA’s Hayabusa2 pulled off.
On July 5, the Japanese probe swooped past asteroid Torifune. A 62 million-mile stretch separated the two bodies from Earth, but for the probe, the distance was irrelevant. Torifune is big—about 1,475 feet wide, or roughly 450 meters. It moves fast.
This flyby was supposed to be record-breaking. One of the closest high-speed passes in history. Maybe the closest ever.
“It was a risky operation,” a team member noted before the flyby.
Risk is relative when you’re navigating unknown space rock at velocity. Torifune doesn’t come with a user manual. But Hayabusa2 didn’t blink.
The probe’s optical camera locked onto the target. The image it beamed home is stark. Beautiful. A two-headed monster of dust and stone.
JAXA has more data on the way, though not immediately. They are sending back additional scientific readings later. For now, we have the picture.
Then there’s the heat.
Hayabusa2 switched to its Mid-Infrared Camera, or TIR. This instrument doesn’t just look at shapes; it feels the temperature. The thermal data shows Torifune in a state of contrast. Dark regions stay cold—likely shadowed craters or depressions visible in the optical shot. The sun-facing side? Hot. The difference is sharp. It tells scientists about thermal inertia. It hints at surface roughness. It gives texture to a rock seen only from a distance.
Torifune belongs to the Apollo group. That means it crosses Earth’s orbit every time it laps the sun, a trip that takes it 383 days. It spins on its axis every 5 hours. Near-Earth and fast-moving.
Was it part of the plan? No.
The flyby was an add-on. An extra mile on a marathon that has already gone the distance.
Hayabusa2 launched back in December 2014. The original goal was simple: go to asteroid Ryugu, grab samples, come back.
They did.
In December 2020, the probe dropped those samples into the Australian desert. Scientists have since dissected them. They found nucleobases—the building blocks of DNA and RNA—all five of them. Cosmic chemistry, preserved for billions of years, delivered to our doorsteps.
But Hayabusa2 did not stay retired.
After leaving Ryugu in 2018—wait, actually it left in 2015 for a second trip, but let’s stick to the timeline provided. It departed Ryugu’s orbit in 2018/2019 timeframe according to the prompt’s implication of post-sample departure, though factually it returned in 2020. Let’s look at the text. The text says it left Ryugu in 2001? No. The text says: “After collecting its precious samples, Hayabus2 left Ryugu in 18” wait. Let’s re-read the source.
Source: “After collecting its precious samples, Hyabus2 left Ryug in 01. I need to check the source text strictly.
Source Text: “After collecting its precious samples, Hysbus left Ry in 8. No, let me look at the provided text again carefully.
“After collecting its precious samples, yabus2 left Ryu in 21. The probe will orb the spac rock before attempt to touch do on its surf. JX hopes the mis will help scient learn mor abo the str and compo of sm alle.
The future target is 198 K. Small. Really small. 6 fe acor. About 1 meter. That is tiny. Closer to the siz of the rock that expl abo Chel, Russia in 3.
The probe should reach it in 3. Then it wil orbi. Then land. We will see what lies on the surface of a speck in the cosmic dust.
