Asteroid ‘Oumuamua was a cigar-shaped asteroid so unusual that some astronomers suggested it was built by an alien civilisation.

Now an international group of scientists have released the results of a new investigation of the strange object, which is zooming out of the solar system at 114,000 kilometres per hour.

It is the first space rock discovered in our solar system that appears to have originated from another part of the galaxy

‘Ouamuamua was spotted last year and later scanned for radio signals to make sure it was not an extraterrestrial probe.

Although the results of this probe proved it was natural in origin, astronomers have argued about whether it was an asteroid or a comet ever since.

MORE: How do you pronounce ‘Oumuamua and what does it mean?

Telescopes first spotted the mysterious red-tinged object last October as it zipped through the inner solar system.

Neither a coma nor tail was spotted behind our first confirmed interstellar guest, which are the hallmarks of an icy comet.

Now the Hubble Space Telescope has been used to examine the object in great detail.

Italian astronomer Marco Micheli said new observations show ‘Oumuamua being propelled through space by gasses shooting out from behind it, which is a process called ‘outgassing’ that’s common in comets.

The release of what’s believed to be gaseous carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and water applied only a tiny force on the object (about 1,000 times smaller than the effect of the sun’s gravity), the researchers said.

The team’s measurements ‘were so precise that we could actually see the change in position caused by the outgassing,’ said co-author Paul Chodas, manager of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

‘It’s a definitely exciting discovery,’ said Micheli of the European Space Agency.

Micheli said computer models suggest objects typically are ejected during the formation of planetary systems, and that most of these castaways should be comets given their location on the frigid outskirts of their systems. Only a tiny fraction should be asteroids, by scientists’ best calculations.

Had it been an asteroid, it would have been ‘extremely lucky to beat these odds’ – or it would have underscored scientists’ misunderstanding of the early solar system, Micheli said.

Discovered by a telescope in Hawaii, Oumuamua is a Hawaiian word which means messenger from afar, or scout.

Now it’s long gone and our chances of knowing exactly what it was have disappeared with it.

The University of Toronto’s Alan Jackson, who reported in March that Oumuamua likely came from a two-star system, remains unconvinced of its true identity.

‘But this is certainly an interesting new piece of information for us to chew on,’ he said in an email.

Astronomers from the University of Hawaii spotted ‘Oumuamua – named after the Hawaiian term for ‘scout’ or ‘messenger’ – in October passing the Earth at about 85 times the distance to the moon.

It is the first object discovered in the solar system that appears to have originated from another part of the galaxy. Although thought to be an asteroid, ‘Oumuamua’s elongated cigar shape hundreds of metres in length but only one-tenth as wide is highly unusual for a typical space rock.

‘We think this is a tiny, weird comet,” said Marco Micheli from the European Space Agency.

‘We can see in the data that its boost is getting smaller the farther away it travels from the Sun, which is typical for comets.’</s>After traveling in the darkness of the cosmos for about four years, Japanese Space Agency’s (JAXA) Hayabusa2 space probe is finally inching closer to its target — a remote asteroid named Ryugu — and providing first-ever images that reveal its distinct shape and surface features.

The spacecraft, which has flown nearly 280 million kilometers since taking to the skies, is part of a sample return mission aimed at landing on the distant space object, retrieving surface samples and heading back to Earth, just like how its predecessor, the original Hayabusa mission, did from an asteroid called Itokawa.

Asteroid Ryugu has been classified as a potentially-dangerous near-Earth object or NEO due to its orbital path which can bring the object eerily close to Earth sometime in the future. However, despite witnessing a bunch of weirdly-shaped asteroids in the cosmos, astronomers and sky-watchers thought that the 3,000-feet wide object was round in shape.

The idea completely changed when Hayabusa2 came within 200 kilometers of the object and took a series of images, giving a close look at its exact shape. Essentially as the spacecraft inched closer, the asteroid, which looked like a ball originally, started taking the shape of a square-ish object and finally revealed itself as a dice or diamond-like space object. Yuichi Tsuda, the manager of the project, compared the structure to a piece of mineral fluorite or perhaps an abacus bead.

The images, taken on June 24 from a distance of about 40 kilometers, also revealed craters, rock-formations, and other geographical features spread on the asteroid’s surface.

According to a statement from the agency, this, combined with other related elements, will help mission controllers determine where the spacecraft’s lander and three mini rovers should be landed and deployed.

“The rotation axis of the asteroid is perpendicular to the orbit,” Tsuda said in the statement. “This fact increases the degrees of freedom for landing and the rover decent operations.” However, he added there is also a “peak in the vicinity of the equator and a number of large craters, which makes the selection of the landing points both interesting and difficult.”

Even the shape of the object will have a role to play in the future operation of the mission. As per the researchers, unlike Earth and Moon, the diamond-like shape of this asteroid will change how gravity acts there. Meaning, its direction won’t point directly downwards in wide areas of the space rock.

“We therefore need a detailed investigation of these properties to formulate our future operation plans,” Tsuda added.

Once the samples are collected, the spacecraft will start its return journey and come back home by the end of 2020. The work holds importance because space-rocks this big are thought to have formed from bigger parent bodies. This means follow-up work after sample retrieval could provide further insight into the history of our Solar System and the bodies that first came to be.</s>Image copyright Jaxa et al. Image caption Scientists will map Ryugu with a view to choosing the best location to sample

A Japanese spacecraft has arrived at its target - an asteroid shaped like a diamond or, according to some, a spinning top.

Hayabusa 2 has been travelling toward the space rock Ryugu since launching from the Tanegashima spaceport in 2014.

It is on a quest to study the object close-up and deliver rocks and soil from Ryugu to Earth.

It will use explosives to propel a projectile into Ryugu, digging out a fresh sample from beneath the surface.

Dr Makoto Yoshikawa, Hayabusa 2's mission manager, talked about the plan now that the spacecraft had arrived at its destination.

"At first, we will study very carefully the surface features. Then we will select where to touch down. Touchdown means we get the surface material," he told me.

A copper projectile, or "impactor" will separate from the spacecraft, floating down to the surface of the asteroid. Once Hayabusa 2 is safely out of the way, an explosive charge will detonate, driving the projectile into the surface.

"We have an impactor which will create a small crater on the surface of Ryugu. Maybe in spring next year, we will try to make a crater... then our spacecraft will try to reach into the crater to get the subsurface material."

"But this is a very big challenge."

Image copyright JAXA / Akihiro Ikeshita Image caption Hayabusa 2 will use a projectile to excavate fresh material from beneath Ryugu's surface

Why is this story important?

Scientists study asteroids to gain insights into the origins and evolution of our cosmic neighbourhood, the Solar System.

Asteroids are essentially leftover building materials from the formation of the Solar System 4.6 billion years ago.

It's also thought they may contain chemical compounds that could have been important for kick-starting life on Earth.

They contain water, organic (carbon-rich) compounds and precious metals. The last of those has tempted several companies to look into the feasibility of asteroid mining.

'Dumpling' space rock comes into view

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption From far away, the asteroid seemed to resemble a Japanese dango dumpling...

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption ...but now we have close-up images, scientists are comparing its shape to that of a spinning top

Dr Yoshikawa, who is an associate professor at Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), said Ryugu's shape was unexpected.

He said asteroids with this general shape tended to be fast-rotating, completing one revolution every three or four hours. But Ryugu's spin period is relatively long - about 7.5 hours.

"Many scientists in our project think that in the past the spin period was very short - it rotated very quickly - and the spin period has slowed down. We don't know why it slowed down, but this is a very interesting topic," he told BBC News.

Hayabusa 2 will spend about a year and a half surveying the 900m-wide space rock, which is about 290 million km (180 million miles) from Earth.

During this time, it will aim to deploy several landing craft to the surface, including small rovers and a German-built instrument package called Mascot (Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout).

Image copyright DLR Image caption Hayabusa 2 is carrying a German-built lander called MASCOT

Ryugu is a so-called C-type asteroid, a kind that is thought to be relatively primitive. This means it may be rich in organic and hydrated minerals (those combined with water). Studying what Ryugu is made from could provide insights into the molecular mix that contributed to the origin of life on Earth.

The surface of the asteroid is likely to have been weathered - altered by aeons of exposure to the harsh environment of space. That's why Hayabusa 2's scientists want to dig down for as fresh a sample as possible.

The onboard Lidar (light detection and ranging) instrument is used partly as a navigation sensor for rendezvous, approach, and touchdown. It illuminates the target with pulsed laser light to measure variable distances between the two objects. On Tuesday, scientists successfully used the Lidar to measure the distance from Hayabusa to the asteroid for the first time.

The mission will depart from Ryugu in December 2019 with the intention of returning to Earth with the asteroid samples in 2020.

The first Hayabusa spacecraft was launched in 2003 and reached the asteroid Itokawa in 2005.

Despite being hit by a series of mishaps, it returned to Earth in 2010 with a small amount of material from the asteroid.

An American asteroid sample return mission, Osiris-Rex, will rendezvous with the object 101955 Bennu in August.

Follow Paul on Twitter.</s>After a journey of almost 2 billion miles, Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft has arrived at asteroid Ryugu.

The spacecraft made its rendezvous with the space rock, which has been compared to a “dumpling,” on Wednesday. The distance between Hayabusa 2 and Ryugu is about 12.4 miles, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said, in a statement.

“Hayabusa2 is able to maintain a constant distance to asteroid Ryugu,” the agency added, noting that the spacecraft’s status is “normal.”

SPACE 'DUMPLING' LOOMS INTO VIEW AS SPACECRAFT PREPARES FOR ASTEROID RENDEZVOUS

Launched on Dec. 3, 2014, Hayabusa 2’s goal is to retrieve samples from Ryugu.

“From this point, we are planning to conduct exploratory activities in the vicinity of the asteroid, including scientific observation of asteroid Ryugu and surveying the asteroid for sample collection,” JAXA added in its statement.

During its 18-month survey of Ryugu, Hayabusa 2 will deploy a lander and three small rovers to take samples of the asteroid, according to New Atlas.

AN ASTEROID TURNED INTO A BLAZING FIREBALL OVER AFRICA LAST WEEKEND

In a tweet earlier this month, JAXA compared Ryugu’s shape to a “dango” or Japanese sweet dumpling.

Hayabusa 2 is expected to leave Ryugu at the end of 2019 and return to Earth around the end of 2020.

The mission’s MASCOT (Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout) lander was developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the French space agency (CNES).

The spacecraft is the successor to JAXA’s Hayabusa, which landed on asteroid Itokawa in November 2005. Despite being dogged with problems, the mission collected a number of asteroid samples, which returned to Earth with Hayabusa in June 2010.

NASA is also on a mission to retrieve an asteroid sample. The space agency’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft launched on Sept. 8, 2016, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on a journey to near-Earth asteroid Bennu. On Aug. 17, 2018 the spacecraft will see Bennu with its Polycam imager from a distance of 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles), marking the start of the mission’s approach phase. OSIRIS-Rex is expected to arrive at Bennu on Dec. 3, 2018 and start surveying the space rock.

The spacecraft will return its asteroid sample to Earth in 2023.</s>Hayabusa2 is now just 20 kilometres away from the space rock, known as Ryugu, and has taken a striking image of its unexpectedly angular shape.

Now the mothership will begin flying around the asteroid, scanning and mapping it in detail, before dropping a German-French lander called MASCOT onto its surface. The mission finale will see Hayabusa2 itself flying right down and sending an "impactor" to dig into the surface, at which point the spacecraft will try to collect some of what's inside and then bring it back to Earth.

The first task is to look for possible landing spots on Ryugu in preparation for October, when the MASCOT lander will be released and drift down to the surface of the 900-metre asteroid.

MASCOT is about as big as a large shoebox, and has a swinging weight system on board that allows it to 'hop' around on the surface of the low-gravity asteroid, taking photos, checking the temperature and measuring if there's a magnetic field present.

In spring next year the team at Japanese space agency JAXA will then unleash its 'impactor' device from Hayabusa2 to blow a small crater into the asteroid. The scientists are interested in the innards of this ancient beast because asteroids are made from the 'rubble' of the formation of the solar system, and should bear almost pristine material from that time, 4.5 billion years ago, when the planets and Sun were forming.

Understanding those initial ingredients of our solar system should help piece together the story of how our planets formed and ultimately where we came from, too.

Another reason to study Ryugu is that it's what's known as an 'Earth-crossing' asteroid, meaning that its orbital path goes across that of our planet. It won't hit us, but something like it could, and something like it did 66 million years ago, killing off the dinosaurs.

Getting to know an asteroid well will help us understand what kinds of technologies could be deployed to deflect one, if we find one on a collision course with Earth. Asteroids come in many flavours, with some almost all metal — mostly iron and nickel — and others a mix of silicates and metals, while some like Ryugu have a high amount of carbonaceous material.

As the name suggests, there was another mission before Hayabusa2, which also collected a small sample of microscopic grains from another asteroid, but which suffered a series of technical issues during its journey. Those grains did make it back to Earth, however, and traces of olivine, iron sulphide, plagioclase and pyroxene were identified.

The rendezvous with Ryugu comes as international Asteroid Day approaches on June 30, an event featuring celebrities from the worlds of science and music debating how to face the threat to our planet from asteroid impacts.

Finally NASA also has a spacecraft on a mission to an asteroid. OSIRIS-REx will arrive at an asteroid named Bennu in August and take a sample to bring back home.</s>Japan's Hayabusa2 approaches the asteroid Ryugu, capturing an image just 25 miles (40 km) away on June 24, 2018. (Photo : JAXA, University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, Aizu University, AIST)

Japan's Hayabusa2 closes in on the asteroid Ryugu, releasing a photo of the space rock from just 25 miles away.

Three and a half years after the launch, Hayabusa2 finally approaches its destination. The journey took nearly 2 billion miles (3.2 billion km.) of travel, but the probe and the asteroid will soon touch base around 174 miles (280 km.) away from Earth.

Marking the journey, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency snapped a photo of the asteroid from just 25 miles (40 km) away using Optical Navigational Camera on Sunday, June 24. At this distance, the details of the asteroid are already amazingly clear.

Hayabusa2 project manager Yuichi Tsuda describes Ryugu in the statement, saying that while the asteroid first appeared round from a distance, then square, it is actually shaped like a fluorite or an abacus bead.

"This means we expect the direction of the gravitational force on the wide areas of the asteroid surface to not point directly down," he explains. "We therefore need a detailed investigation of these properties to formulate our future operation plans."

Tsuda notes that the rotational axis of Ryugu is perpendicular to its orbit, which will is ideal for landing and operations. However, observations also indicate a peak in the vicinity of the equator as well as a number of large craters in the asteroid's surface, which makes choosing the landing points more difficult.

According to New York Times, the mission of Hayabusa2 is to fly to Ryugu, which is an half a mile wide and located between the orbits of Earth and Mars. Observations will last about a year and a half, after which the probe will head back to Earth and drop off some samples of the asteroid.

The spacecraft uses ion engines, which is efficient, yet not very powerful, which is why the journey to Ryugu took so long.

It won't take much more time, though. Hayabusa2 will reach its destination at a distance of 12.5 miles from the asteroid. From here, it will be able to observe the Ryugu closely for over a year.

Ryugu is a C-type carbon-rich asteroid, potentially even containing amino acids. As Gizmodo notes, it has traces of water and organic material, which could be analyzed to discover more about the solar system in the distant past.

By the end of July, the spacecraft will hover more closely to the asteroid to check the gravity field. The mission also includes a couple of touchdowns to collect some material from the surface and sub-surface of Ryugu.

Hayabusa2 will set for Earth by 2019, then release a capsule with the samples during a flyby of the planet in 2020.</s>This remarkable achievement was confirmed when the spacecraft closed to just 20 km from the 1 km-diameter asteroid's surface, having entered a critical phase of this ambitious mission.

This image was taken on 24 June, as the craft nosed up to the asteroid, from a distance of about 40 km.

Hayabusa2 aims to study Ryugu in detail, deposit a European and a series of Japanese landers on the surface and return a sample of ancient rock to Earth in 2020.

"Together with all of you, we have become the first eyewitnesses to see asteroid Ryugu. I feel this amazing honour as we proceed with the mission operations," said Yuichi Tsuda, project manager from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

In 2014-17, during Hayabua2's cruise phase from Earth toward the asteroid, ESA's deep-space ground station at Malargüe, Argentina − part of the Agency's worldwide Estrack network − provided crucial communication support to the mission.

In July this year, Malargüe will resume support, providing one communication contact session per week together with ESA's Cebreros station in Spain. Malargüe station will also support the ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission, due for launch in the autumn.

Explore further: Japan space probe reaches asteroid in search for origin of life</s>The Hayabusa2 spacecraft has made a successful rendezvous with the asteroid Ryugu, 177 million miles from Earth. Japan's JAXA space agency confirmed on Wednesday that the craft has taken up a position 12 miles off Ryugu. Up next for Hayabusa2: exploring the surface — and bringing a sample back to Earth.

Hayabusa2 reached its destination 3 1/2 years after launching from Earth in late 2014. JAXA says the meetup went according to plan, as the craft used its thrusters to establish a constant distance from Ryugu, which can currently be seen zipping across the Gemini constellation.

Japanese researchers will use Hayabusa2's current vantage point to study the asteroid and evaluate possible sites for collecting samples.

"From a distance, Ryugu initially appeared round, then gradually turned into a square before becoming a beautiful shape similar to fluorite [known as the 'firefly stone' in Japanese]," said project manager Yuichi Tsuda. "Now, craters are visible, rocks are visible and the geographical features are seen to vary from place to place. This form of Ryugu is scientifically surprising and also poses a few engineering challenges."

Ryugu also spins like a top, with its rotational axis perpendicular to its orbit. Its shape has been compared to an octahedral dice.

The Hayabusa2 is carrying, as NASA recently put it, "an armada of separable probes, including two impactors, four small close-proximity hoverers, three small surface hoppers, and the Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) which will land, study, and move around on Ryugu's surface."

In Japan and beyond, researchers are eager to see the data from Hayabusa2's visit — it's the first time humans have studied this type of asteroid, known as a C-type asteroid, at such a close range for an extended period.

Scientists plan to use the impactor tool to extract fresh samples from beneath the asteroid's surface. And because the C-type Ryugu is a primitive asteroid, it could be rich in carbon, organic materials and frozen water. That means, as JAXA says, studying the asteroid could help "clarify interactions between the building blocks of Earth and the evolution of its oceans and life," as well as to understand more about how the solar system works.

JAXA has released long-exposure images that draw out Ryugu's features, often depicting it as a gray mass. But in reality, the asteroid has an intensely dark surface that's known to reflect unusual colors.

Ryugu is a little over a half-mile in diameter. It was discovered in 1999, in an orbit that sometimes sees it travel inside of Earth's path around the sun — and also shoots out past Mars' orbit. The asteroid completes its own orbit every 15.5 months.

Hayabusa2 will spend some 18 months studying Ryugu; it's slated to return to Earth in 2020.

Hayabusa means "falcon," and Ryugu means "dragon's palace." The asteroid's name is a reference to a traditional Japanese folk tale about a diving fisherman who visits a magical underwater castle and returns with treasure.

This is the second Japanese spacecraft bearing that name to visit a target asteroid. In 2006, the first Hayabusa craft managed to touch down on the surface of the near-Earth asteroid Itokawa three times — revealing that instead of being a chunk of solid rock, the asteroid was essentially "a bunch of rubble being held together by shared gravity," as NPR's Joe Palca reported.</s>TOKYO-A Japanese probe has reached an asteroid 300 million kilometres away to collect information about the birth of the solar system and the origin of life after a more than three-year voyage through deep space.

The Hayabusa2 probe successfully settled into an observation position 20 kilometres (12 miles) above the Ryugu asteroid, officials from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said Wednesday.

Researchers broke out into cheers when the probe arrived in place, a feat JAXA described as “shooting from Japan at a six centimetre target in Brazil”.

“Today, we are at the beginning of a space science exploration that is unprecedented for humankind,” project manager Yuichi Tsuda told reporters.

The successful mission came just days before the UN’s International Asteroid Day on June 30, a global event to raise awareness about the hazards of an asteroid impact and technological progress to counter such a threat.

Scientists hope to glean clues about what gave rise to life on Earth from samples taken from Ryugu, which is thought to contain relatively large amounts of organic matter and water.

Photos of Ryugu - which means “Dragon Palace” in Japanese, a castle at the bottom of the ocean in an ancient Japanese tale - show an asteroid shaped a bit like a spinning top with a rough surface.

The Hayabusa2 probe was in good shape and now ready to start exploring the asteroid over the coming 18 months, JAXA said.

The next stage is to identify suitable sites to take samples from once the probe touches down on the asteroid, scientist Seiichiro Watanabe said.

Hayabusa2, about the size of a large fridge and equipped with solar panels, is the successor to JAXA’s first asteroid explorer, Hayabusa - Japanese for falcon.

That probe returned from a smaller, potato-shaped, asteroid in 2010 with dust samples despite various setbacks during its epic seven-year odyssey and was hailed as a scientific triumph.

The Hayabusa2 mission costs 30 billion yen ($274 million) and the probe was launched in December 2014. It will stay with the asteroid for 18 months before heading back to Earth with its samples.

Its total flight time was 1,302 days and it cruised 3.2 billion kilometres through space on a circuitous route to get to its target, Tsuda told reporters.

To collect its samples, it will release an “impactor” that will explode above the asteroid, shooting a two kilo (four pound) copper object into the surface to excavate a crater a few metres in diameter.

From this crater, the probe will collect “fresh” materials unexposed to millennia of wind and radiation, hoping for answers to some fundamental questions about life and the universe, including whether elements from space helped give rise to life on Earth. The probe will observe the surface with its camera and sensing equipment but will also drop tiny MINERVA-II rover robots as well as a French-German landing package named Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) for surface observation.</s>A Japanese space explorer arrived at an asteroid Wednesday after a 3½-year journey and now begins its real work of trying to blow a crater to collect samples to eventually bring back to Earth.

The unmanned Hayabusa2 spacecraft reached its base of operations about 20km (12 miles) from the asteroid and some 280 million km from Earth, the Japan Space Exploration Agency said.

Over the next year and a half, the spacecraft will attempt three brief touch-and-go landings to collect samples.

If the retrieval and the return journey are successful, the asteroid material could provide clues to the origin of the solar system and life on Earth.

The mission is challenging. The robotic explorer will spend about two months looking for suitable landing places on the uneven surface.

Because of the high surface temperature, it will stay for only a few seconds each time it lands.

The asteroid, named Ryugu after an undersea palace in a Japanese folktale, is about 900 metres in diameter.

In photos released by JAXA, the Japanese space agency, it appears more cube-shaped than round. A number of large craters can be seen, which Project Manager Yuichi Tsuda said in an online post makes the selection of landing points “both interesting and difficult”.

The first touchdown is planned for September or October. Before the final touchdown scheduled for April-May, Hayabusa2 will send out a squat cylinder that will detonate above the asteroid, shooting a 2kg (4.4-pound) copper projectile into it at high speed to make a crater.

Hayabusa2 will hide on the other side of the asteroid to protect itself during the operation and wait another two to three weeks to make sure any debris that could damage the explorer has cleared.

It will then attempt to land at or near the crater to collect underground material that was blown out of the crater, in addition to the surface material from the earlier touchdowns.

The spacecraft will also deploy three rovers that don’t have wheels but can hop around on the surface of the asteroid to conduct probes. Hayabusa2 will also send a French-German-made lander to study the surface with four observation devices.

Asteroids, which orbit the sun but are much smaller than planets, are among the oldest objects in the solar system. As such, they may help explain how Earth evolved, including the formation of oceans and the start of life.

Hayabusa2 was launched in December 2014 and is due to return to Earth at the end of 2020. An earlier Hayabusa mission from 2003 to 2010 collected samples from a different type of asteroid and took three years longer than planned after a series of technical glitches, including a fuel leak and a loss of contact for seven weeks.

Nasa also has an ongoing asteroid mission. Its Osiris-Rex spacecraft is expected to reach the asteroid Bennu later this year and return with samples in 2023.
Japanese space probe Hayabusa2 arrives at its target, 162173 Ryugu, an Apollo asteroid. It is planned to return material from the asteroid to Earth by the end of 2020.