Artist’s impression of Hayabusa2 touching down on asteroid 1998 KY26 (artist’s impression) (IMAGE)
Caption
An artist's impression of Japan’s Hayabusa2 space mission touching down on the surface of the asteroid 1998 KY26. New observations with the Gemini South telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, funded in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation and operated by NSF NOIRLab, and ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have revealed that 1998 KY26 is just 11 meter wide, almost three times smaller than previously thought, and is spinning once every 5 minutes, which is almost two times faster than expected. The image above shows an updated size comparison between the asteroid and spacecraft.
Credit
ESO/M. Kornmesser. Asteroid: T. Santana-Ros et al. Hayabusa2 model: SuperTKG (CC-BY-SA)
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Credit must be given to the creator. Adaptations must be shared under the same terms.
License
CC BY-SA