Madrid /
The universe keeps millions of secrets that astronomers are slowly deciphering. Now, the Subaru telescope took from its location in Hawaii images of the 1998 asteroid KY26, which will approach Earth by the end of 2020 and is the target of the extended mission of the Japanese Space Agency, Hayabusa2.
Operated by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), asteroid explorer Hayabusa2 delivered a re-entry capsule to Earth containing samples of the asteroid (162,173) Ryugu on December 6th.
After this descent, Hayabusa2 set off again, this time for the extended mission using the remaining fuel. In this extended mission, Hayabsa2 is expected to approach and observe its next target, the small asteroid 1998 KY26, the NAOJ (National Astronomical Observatories of Japan) said in a statement.
The asteroid will approach Earth in the coming days
This asteroid is predicted to approach 0.47 AU from Earth by mid or late December 2020, giving us a unique opportunity that presents itself only once every three and a half years.
However, it is estimated that the diameter of 1998 KY26 does not exceed 30 meters and therefore its brightness is so faint that the Earth’s observations of the asteroid are difficult without a very large telescope.
1998 KY26 was photographed in the direction of the constellation Gemini as a point of light of magnitude 25.4 with a measurement uncertainty of 0.7 mag.
The position data collected during these observations will be used to improve the accuracy of the orbital elements of the asteroid. Similar observations were made with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO).
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