Japan veröffentlicht nach Vorbeiflug ein schneemannähnliches Asteroidenbild

From the article:

„Rare images taken by a Japanese space probe during a flyby of a near-Earth asteroid have revealed that the space rock resembled a snowman, scientists said Monday.

The fridge-sized Hayabusa2 skimmed asteroid Torifune on Sunday in a mission that demonstrated the ability to deflect a potentially dangerous space rock away from Earth.

A new image released by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on Monday could aid such efforts, as researchers say near-Earth asteroids vary in their size, shape and surface characteristics.

„The moment I actually saw this image and the scientific data—it really gave me goosebumps,“ JAXA scientist Yuya Mimasu told reporters, adding the asteroid „personally looked like a snowman.“

The black-and-white image, captured by a telescopic camera, showed what appeared to be two round objects joined together.“