Madrid /
The universe keeps millions of secrets for us that astronomers are gradually deciphering. Now, the Subaru telescope has taken images of the 1998 KY26 asteroid from its location in Hawaii, which will approach the Earth at 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 asteroid samples (162173) Ryugu on December 6th.
After this descent, Hayabusa2 left again, this time for the extended mission using the remaining fuel. In this extended mission, Hayabsa2 should magnify and observe its next target, the small asteroid 1998 KY26, the National Astronomical Observatories of Japan (NAOJ) said in a statement.
The asteroid will approach Earth in the next few days
It is estimated that this asteroid will approach 0.47 AU from Earth in the middle and end of December 2020, giving us a unique opportunity that occurs only once every three and a half years.
However, the diameter of the 1998 KY26 is estimated to be no more than 30 meters, and therefore its brightness is so low that ground observations of the asteroid are difficult without a very large telescope.
1998 KY26 was photographed in the direction of the Gemini constellation 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 European Southern Observatory (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT).
LNB