JAXA shares Hayabusa2 photo of asteroid Torifune
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, on Monday released a photo of Torifune, taken by Hayabusa2 at close range as the unmanned probe flew past the asteroid the previous day, Qazinform News Agency reports, citing Jiji Press.
The photo was taken just a second before Hayabusa2's scheduled closest approach to the asteroid. At the time the photo was taken, the distance between Hayabusa2 and Torifune was believed to be only a few hundred meters. The national space agency will determine the exact distance in a future analysis.
The picture captured details of Torifune that may provide clues to the asteroid's origin, including the locations of rocks on its surface.
"I can't forget how shocked I was when I saw the image," Yuya Mimasu, who heads JAXA's Hayabusa2 extended mission team, told a press conference. "I was in awe about the fact that Hayabusa2 took such a good picture in a fleeting moment of the flyby," he said.
The control technology used for the probe's close flyby is expected to aid planetary defense, or the protection of Earth from potential asteroid collisions.
Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that China would build a space-ground monitoring network for asteroid defense.
