{"id":16013,"date":"2015-10-05T17:39:33","date_gmt":"2015-10-05T09:39:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/target-of-japanese-space-mission-named-for-dragons-palace\/"},"modified":"2015-10-05T17:39:33","modified_gmt":"2015-10-05T09:39:33","slug":"target-of-japanese-space-mission-named-for-dragons-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/target-of-japanese-space-mission-named-for-dragons-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"Target of Japanese space mission named for dragon\u2019s palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Artist's
Artist\u2019s concept of the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft at asteroid Ryugu. Credit: JAXA\/Akihiro Ikeshita<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Japanese space agency has selected Ryugu as the name of an asteroid pursued by the country\u2019s Hayabusa 2 space probe, naming the object after a dragon\u2019s palace in an ancient Japanese fairy tale, officials said Monday.<\/p>\n

A selection committee picked the name Ryugu from 7,336 entries proposed by the public. The asteroid was previously known as 1999 JU3, and the new name has been submitted to the International Astronomical Union to be added to the global scientific body\u2019s registry, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.<\/p>\n

Ryugu is the name of an undersea dragon\u2019s palace visited by Urashima Taro, a fisherman in a Japanese folk story who brings back a mysterious treasure box from the underwater castle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe theme of \u2018bringing back a treasure\u2019 is common as the Hayabusa 2 will also bring back a capsule with samples,\u201d JAXA said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Asteroid Ryugu was discovered by U.S. scientists in 1999 and measures approximately 900 meters \u2014 about 3,000 feet \u2014 across. When it arrives at Ryugu in June 2018, Hayabusa 2 will make the first visit to the object and attempt to retrieve rock specimens for return to Earth in 2020.<\/p>\n

Hayabusa 2 launched Dec. 3, 2014, and is heading for gravity assist flyby of Earth in December, which will slingshot the solar-powered spacecraft toward its rendezvous with Ryugu in 2018.<\/p>\n

The mission carries four small landers \u2014 three from Japan and one from Germany \u2014 it will drop to the asteroid\u2019s surface during a year-and-a-half of operations in Ryugu\u2019s vicinity. Each probe has mechanisms to allow them to hop around the asteroid.<\/p>\n

Hayabusa 2 is Japan\u2019s second asteroid sample return mission.<\/p>\n

The Hayabusa project visited asteroid Itokawa \u2014 named for Hideo Itokawa, a pioneer in Japan\u2019s space program \u2014 in 2005, but technical problems prevented the spacecraft from gathering the intended samples. Hayabusa successfully landed back on Earth in 2010, and scientists harvested microscopic specimens from the return capsule.<\/p>\n

NASA plans to launch its first asteroid sample return probe in September 2016. Named OSIRIS-REx, the mission will rendezvous with asteroid Bennu, about half the size of Ryugu, and fly back to Earth with rock fragments in 2023. Bennu was named for a mythological Egyptian bird in a competition among U.S. schoolchildren.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Artist\u2019s concept of the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft at asteroid Ryugu. Credit: JAXA\/Akihiro Ikeshita The Japanese space agency has selected Ryugu as the name of an asteroid pursued by the country\u2019s Hayabusa 2 space probe, naming the object after a dragon\u2019s palace in an ancient Japanese fairy tale, officials said Monday. A selection committee picked the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1519,1965,377,877,2168],"class_list":["post-16013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-asteroids","tag-hayabusa-2","tag-japan","tag-jaxa","tag-ryugu"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16013"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16013\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}