Subaru Telescope received a letter of appreciation from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to commemorate the success of the asteroid explorer Hayabusa2.
Hayabusa2, launched in 2014, explored the asteroid Ryugu 300 million kilometers away from the Earth, and returned a sample collected at Ryugu to the Earth in December 2020. The Hayabusa2 project, which has already achieved great success with many scientific papers, will end in March 2022, but now the "Hayabusa2 Extended Mission" is continuing on to a new target, 1998 KY26.
Subaru Telescope imaged the asteroid 1998 KY26, the target of Hayabusa2's extended mission, in December 2020. The positional data for 1998 KY26 obtained from the observations contributed to the accurate measurement of the asteroid’s orbital parameters.
Dr. Michitoshi Yoshida, Director of Subaru Telescope, says "We are delighted that Subaru Telescope has contributed to the Hayabusa2 mission. I hope that the Hayabusa2 Extended Mission will produce even greater results. The Subaru Telescope will continue to deepen its collaboration with space missions and international research collaborations".
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