Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2025

8 ASTRO PUBLISHING mission’s operations at the asteroid, just six years out from the space- craft’s encounter with 1998 KY 26 . “We found that the reality of the object is completely different from what it was previously described as,” says astronomer Toni Santana-Ros, a researcher from the University of Al- icante, Spain, who led a study on 1998 KY 26 published in Nature Com- munications . The new observations, combined with previous radar data, NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2025 A stronomers have used obser- vatories around the world, including the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), to study the asteroid 1998 KY 26 , revealing it to be almost three times smaller and spin- ning much faster than previously thought. The asteroid is the 2031 target for Japan’s Hayabusa2 ex- tended mission. The new observa- tions offer key information for the Will Hayabusa2 succeed in landing on 1998 KY 26 ? by ESO Bárbara Ferreira T his artist’s impression illustrates the size of the asteroid 1998 KY 26 in comparison to one of the Very Large Telescope’s (VLT’s) Unit Telescopes, which has a main mirror about 8m in diameter. As a recent study using ESO’s VLT has shown, 1998 KY 26 is only 11 metres wide, meaning the asteroid would fit inside the structure of the very telescope that observed it. This image includes a person for scale in the bottom right. Japan’s Hayabusa2 space mission is planning to rendezvous with this tiny asteroid in six years’ time. [ESO/M. Kornmesser, A. Ghizzi Panizza (www.albertoghizzipanizza.com) . As- teroid model: T. Santana-Ros et al.]