Level 1 — Absolute Beginner
Japan has a spacecraft called Hayabusa2. It flies through space to study asteroids.
On July 5, Hayabusa2 flew close to an asteroid named Torifune. It took pictures.
The pictures show something surprising. Torifune looks like a snowman! It has two round parts joined together.
This is a new part of Hayabusa2's journey. It already visited another asteroid called Ryugu and brought rocks back to Earth.
- spacecraft
- a vehicle designed to travel and operate in outer space
- asteroid
- a small rocky object that orbits the sun
- flyby
- a spaceflight past an object without landing on it
- shape
- the outer form of something
- joined
- connected or put together
- journey
- a trip from one place to another
- sample
- a small piece of something used for study
- mission
- an important job or task, especially in space exploration
Level 2 — Elementary
Japan's space agency, JAXA, announced that its Hayabusa2 spacecraft successfully completed a flyby of the near-Earth asteroid Torifune on July 5, marking the first target of its extended mission.
Hayabusa2 sped past the roughly 450-meter-wide asteroid at about 5 kilometers per second, coming as close as 800 meters, and used its cameras and other instruments to gather detailed information.
The images captured show that Torifune has an elongated, two-lobed shape, similar to a snowman. Scientists believe this shape formed when two separate smaller asteroids gently collided and stuck together.
Hayabusa2 previously explored the asteroid Ryugu and successfully delivered samples from it back to Earth in December 2020. The spacecraft is now continuing deeper into the solar system toward its next target, an asteroid called 1998 KY26.
- agency
- an organization that provides a particular service, often for a government
- extended mission
- additional exploration a spacecraft carries out after its main goals are finished
- instrument
- a scientific device used to make measurements or observations
- elongated
- longer than it is wide; stretched out
- lobed
- having rounded, projecting sections
- collide
- to crash together
- deliver
- to bring something to a destination
- solar system
- the sun and all the planets and objects that orbit it
Level 3 — Intermediate
Japan's space agency, JAXA, confirmed that its Hayabusa2 spacecraft successfully executed a high-speed flyby of the near-Earth S-type asteroid Torifune on July 5, marking the first scientific target pursued under the probe's extended mission.
Traveling at roughly 5 kilometers per second, Hayabusa2 approached to within about 800 meters of the 450-meter-wide asteroid, deploying its Optical Navigation Camera alongside near-infrared, thermal-infrared, and LIDAR instruments to gather a multispectral dataset during the brief encounter.
The resulting imagery revealed an elongated, two-lobed body strongly resembling a snowman, a shape scientists interpret as evidence of a contact binary: two formerly independent asteroids that gradually approached one another and merged through a low-velocity collision.
The flyby builds on Hayabusa2's landmark achievement of returning samples from asteroid Ryugu to Earth in December 2020. The spacecraft is now pressing onward through the solar system toward its next major objective, asteroid 1998 KY26, with Earth gravity assists planned for 2027 and 2028 ahead of an anticipated rendezvous in 2031.
- execute
- to carry out or perform a planned action
- probe
- an unpiloted spacecraft sent to explore and gather data
- deploy
- to bring into use or action for a particular purpose
- multispectral
- involving several distinct wavelength bands of light or radiation
- contact binary
- an object formed from two smaller bodies that have merged together
- low-velocity
- occurring at a relatively slow speed
- landmark
- an event or achievement of great significance
- gravity assist
- a maneuver using a planet's gravity to change a spacecraft's speed or path
Level 4 — Advanced
Japan's space agency, JAXA, confirmed that its Hayabusa2 spacecraft successfully executed a high-speed flyby of the near-Earth S-type asteroid Torifune on July 5, inaugurating the first scientific target pursued under the probe's extended mission following its landmark primary objective.
Traveling at approximately 5 kilometers per second, Hayabusa2 closed to within roughly 800 meters of the 450-meter-wide body, deploying its Optical Navigation Camera in tandem with near-infrared, thermal-infrared, and LIDAR instrumentation to assemble a multispectral dataset during the fleeting encounter window.
The resulting imagery revealed an elongated, bilobate morphology strongly evocative of a snowman, a configuration researchers interpret as compelling evidence of a contact binary: two formerly independent planetesimals that gradually converged and coalesced through a low-velocity collision rather than a catastrophic impact event.
The flyby builds on Hayabusa2's already historic legacy of returning samples from asteroid Ryugu to Earth in December 2020. The spacecraft now presses onward through the solar system toward its next major objective, asteroid 1998 KY26, with Earth gravity assists slated for 2027 and 2028 ahead of an anticipated rendezvous in 2031 that will extend the mission's scientific yield well into the next decade.
- inaugurate
- to begin or introduce a new system, policy, or period
- fleeting
- lasting for a very short time
- bilobate
- having two distinct rounded lobes or sections
- evocative
- bringing strong images or feelings to mind
- planetesimal
- a small solid object formed during the early stages of planet formation
- converge
- to come together from different directions toward a single point
- coalesce
- to come together to form one mass or whole
- yield
- the amount of useful output or result produced by an effort
.jpg%3Fwidth%3D800&w=3840&q=75)
Talk about this article with KatePractice this story's vocabulary in a real spoken conversation with your AI tutor