After the successful collection of material from asteroid Ryugu, Hayabusa2 flew back to Earth to drop it off. But the spacecraft's journey is not ending there. It is now traveling to perform a high-speed flyby of asteroid Torifune next July, and in 2031 will rendezvous with asteroid 1998 KY 26 . When this target was selected, it was going to be the smallest object ever to be encountered by a spacecraft. It turns out it is a lot smaller than previously thought. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

Estimating the size of asteroids is difficult. Asteroids are mostly discovered in visible light, so based on the light reflected and the space rock's distance, you can give a range. Crucial to that is guessing the right type of

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