Hayabusa 2's Close Flyby of Torifune and Spain's Planned Apophis Landing Highlight Asteroid Research

Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft performed a historic close flyby of the near‑Earth asteroid 98943 Torifune on 5 July 2026, passing within about 800 metres of its surface at 5.3 km s⁻¹. The probe used its visible camera, infrared imager, spectrometer and LIDAR to capture detailed images that revealed a bilobate, “snow‑man” shape similar to Itokawa, offering new clues about asteroid formation and providing data useful for future deflection tests.

In parallel, Spain’s aerospace firm EMXYS is preparing the Don Quijote CubeSat, part of ESA’s Ramses programme, to autonomously land on the potentially hazardous asteroid Apophis during its close approach to Earth in April 2029. The mission will carry a gravimeter and seismometer to study the asteroid’s interior, marking a first for a European‑led soft‑landing on a near‑Earth object. China has also stepped up its planetary‑defence initiatives, underscoring growing global interest in asteroid monitoring.

A separate scientific study by researchers at the Southwest Research Institute proposes that ancient asteroid impacts may have fostered conditions for life on early Earth. Simulations show that large impacts fractured the crust, creating extensive hydrothermal circulation that could have produced habitats comparable to modern Yellowstone on a vastly larger scale, potentially accelerating pre‑biotic chemistry between 4.3 billion and 3.5 billion years ago.