Smithsonian Magazine

New Images Reveal That This Asteroid Is Actually Two Conjoined Space Rocks. They Form a Peanut-Shaped Object Called a ‘Contact Binary’

A flyby conducted by the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2 uncovered the asteroid's strange shape. Data gathered by the probe ...

Another success for Hayabusa 2 as it completes a flyby of asteroid Torifune

Hayabusa 2's primary mission is now well in the past. JAXA's asteroid-sampling spacecraft rendezvoused with asteroid Ryugu in ...

A Japanese spacecraft is about to fly just 1 km from an asteroid travelling at 18,000 km/h

Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft is preparing for one of the most daring close encounters ever attempted with an asteroid. On ...