Hayabusa-2 mission

• was launched in December 2014
• Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) 
• To study the asteroid Ryugu
• Ryugu is also classified as potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs). and was discovered in 1999.
• The Hayabusa mission-1 brought samples from the asteroid Itokawa in 2010.

Asteroids

• Asteroids are rocky objects that orbit the Sun, much smaller than planets
• called minor planets

NASA

• NASA’s OSIRIS-REX mission collected samples from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020, which will be brought to Earth in 2023.

Source: The Indian Express