Prof. Przemysław Bartczak and Prof. Dagmara Oszkiewicz from the AMU Astronomical Observatory of the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy are among the authors of the "Hayabusa2 extended mission target asteroid 1998 KY26 is smaller and rotating faster than previously known" article, which has just been published in Nature Communications.
Astronomers used observatories worldwide, including the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT), to study asteroid 1998 KY26.
Asteroid 1998 KY26 is the goal of the extended mission of the Japanese Hayabusa2 probe, which is scheduled to reach it in 2031. New observations provide crucial information for this task. Researchers have discovered that 1998 KY26 is only 11 metres wide and rotates about twice as fast as previously thought (earlier data indicated that it was about 30 metres in diameter and rotated in about 10 minutes). Observations reveal that the asteroid has a bright surface and is likely composed of solid rock, possibly originating from a planetary fragment or another asteroid. However, the research team could not entirely exclude the possibility that 1998 KY26 consists of loosely bound debris.
Asteroid 1998 KY26 is to be the final target of the Hayabusa2 probe of the Japanese Aerospace eXploration Agency (JAXA). As part of its original mission, Hayabusa2 explored the 900-metre-diameter asteroid 162173 Ryugu in 2018. Delivered samples collected from its surface to Earth in 2020. As the spacecraft had fuel left, it was sent on an extended mission until 2031. At which time it is scheduled to meet 1998 KY26 to acquire more information about the smallest asteroids.
Link to the publication: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-63697-4
Illustration: An artistic representation of the Japanese Hayabusa2 space mission landing on the surface of asteroid 1998 KY26. Source: ESO/M. Kornmesser. Asteroid: T. Santana-Ros et al. Hayabusa2 model: SuperTKG (CC-BY-SA).
