Four years have passed since the asteroid explorer “Hayabusa” burned up. As the first to bring a fragment from an asteroid back to Earth, “Hayabusa” made great strides in research related to how the Solar System formed. This is an image of the last moments of “Hayabusa’s” spirited return to Earth, captured by the ground-based Subaru Telescope. Eleven sequential frames were aligned using background astronomical objects to show the motion. Inheriting “Hayabusa’s” dying wish, “Hayabusa 2” is set to launch soon, aiming to explore a new, different variety of asteroid.

Author: Masafumi Yagi (Division of Optical and Infrared Astronomy, Subaru Telescope, TMT Project Office)