Earlier today, the discarded upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket impacted on the Moon. As part of a coordinated observing campaign, our Very Large Telescope detected spectral lines of sodium and lithium gas in the impact plume lasting for 5-10 minutes after impact. 🔭 🧪 📷 ESO/C. Schmidt et al. 1/4

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Link for 2026 July 5 JAXA coverage of the Torifune flyby: www.youtube.com/live/hVC3KP3...

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It will be a busy week for asteroid science, with Tianwen-2 arriving at Kamoʻoalewa and Hayabusa 2 flying by Torifune. Followed by the Asteroids, Comets, Meteors conference: acm2026.eu/conf-data/AC.... Where I hope some of the images will be featured.

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"Tianwen-2 arriving at Kamoʻoalewa and Hayabusa 2 flying by Torifune" #Asia #spaceprograms #asteroids

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On Sunday at 18:30 JST, Hayabusa2 will attempt flyby observations of asteroid Torifune on an Extended Mission after delivering the samples from asteroid Ryugu to Earth 🛰️. Hayabusa2 was designed for rendezvous observations, so must get pretty close to the asteroid for good data 🔭. Cross everything 🤞

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