Astronomy Picture of the Day - Double Lobed Asteroid Torifune

NASA ^ | 14 Jul, 2026 | Image Credit & Copyright: JAXA, U. of Tokyo, Chiba Tech, Tokyo U. of Science, AIST, Paris Obs., IAC

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: Why is this asteroid a double? Earlier this month the Japanese robotic spacecraft Hayabusa2 shot past asteroid 98943 Torifune and captured pictures. Although previous observations from distant Earth indicated that Torifune was oblong, Hayabusa2 found that Torifune actually has two joined lobes. With a length of about four soccer fields, this space rock frequently comes near the Earth as it orbits the Sun, although it is not a threat. Besides the two lobes, Torifune shows many large boulders, but, surprisingly, no obvious craters, likely because its surface is a pile of rubble. Like asteroid Arrokoth, it appears that each lobe formed separately before colliding and becoming stuck together. Hayabusa2 famously encountered asteroid Ryugu in 2018, and now heads for an encounter in 2031 with 1998 KY26, a smaller asteroid that rotates unusually fast and might have reservoirs of ice.

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TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa

[MtnClimber]

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[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list

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[NavyShoe]

Four soccer fields? How many football (American) fields is that?

[MtnClimber]

I know nothing about soccer. How many ping pong tables is it? or how about just using feet or meters and stop being cute?

[ComputerGuy]

Nice lobes!

[Red Badger]

We should call it ‘Dolly’...............

[P8riot]

For better oo-mox

[null and void]

Hello

[dayglored]

> How many ping pong tables is it? or how about just using feet or meters and stop being cute?

Funny thing is, I usually work that in reverse. So if somebody says something is say 300 meters, I think “that’s a little more than three football fields“. Oh and that’s American football fields, thank you very much.

[sit-rep]

Corn for dinner last night??

[No name given]

Whoa.

[AFB-XYZ]

Looks like the peanut-butter-and-coconut balls my mom used to make for PTA meetings.

[AZJeep]

About four too!